Christian Horner gives Red Bull reaction in Italian GP message to Martin Brundle

Former Red Bull team boss Christian Horner reached out to Martin Brundle during the Italian Grand Prix, where Brundle was on Sky F1 commentary duties.

Max Verstappen produced a masterclass to claim his and Red Bull’s first grand prix win since Imola, a performance which it seems left Horner impressed, as he pointed out to Brundle that Monza was Red Bull’s “worst race” in 2024.

Christian Horner praises Red Bull in Martin Brundle text

Horner was shown the door by Red Bull shortly following the British Grand Prix in a shock development. Horner – who was replaced as Red Bull Racing CEO by Laurent Mekies – had been Red Bull’s sole team boss since they joined the grid in 2005.

Mekies now has his first grand prix win at the Red Bull helm after Verstappen delivered a dominant drive to victory at Monza.

Told to let McLaren’s Lando Norris back into the lead after cutting the chicane at the start, Verstappen obliged, but soon re-passed Norris and never looked back, taking the chequered flag in what was officially the quickest grand prix of all time at one hour, 13 minutes and 24 seconds.

It was a much-needed shot of momentum for Red Bull, and Horner was clearly impressed by his former team. The 2024 Italian GP saw Verstappen finish 38 seconds behind victor Charles Leclerc.

“A message from Christian Horner here actually,” Brundle stated live on Sky F1, “saying, ‘This was our worst race last year. We had the wrong downforce level,’ and how hard the team have worked on that package and done a great job. Of course, they’ve turned it around.”

Key talking points following the 2025 Italian Grand Prix

👉 McLaren threw ‘papaya rules’ to the wind in Italian Grand Prix team orders call

👉 What Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri said about the race-defining team order at Italian GP

Having claimed pole with a new Monza lap record, Verstappen had explained how he stuck to his guns on an RB21 setup choice which “some people” within Red Bull were not convinced on. It proved a masterstroke, and Verstappen delivered again on Grand Prix Sunday.

The reigning four-time World Champion cannot guarantee this level of performance becoming the norm, but his understanding of what makes the RB21 tick has improved.

“I think it’s still a bit track dependent,” said Verstappen. “I mean, here you drive low downforce, it always seems like our car is a little bit more competitive when it’s low to medium downforce.

“So, it’s not like suddenly, now we are back, you know, it’s not like we can fight, I think, every single weekend. But the positive is that we seem to understand a little bit more what we need to do with the car to be more competitive.

“So I hope that that just carries on into the coming rounds as well, and some tracks will be a bit better than others.”

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