by Managing pressure is an integral part of Formula One. At the sharp end of the sport it is the team principals who carry the responsibility and the burden and it carries a lot of weight. Christian Horner is no stranger to dealing with it during a career marked by a focused and driven ambition that has seen great success.
However, Red Bull team principal Horner has faced a week of scrutiny perhaps unlike any he has faced in his 20 years in F1, with the team’s parent company Red Bull investigating allegations of misconduct improper control made against him.
He has learned his role in the job a lot. After joining Red Bull as boss in the team’s first season in Formula One in 2005, Horner became the youngest ever team principal at 31. Almost two decades later he remains with the team and is the Grid is now the longest serving principal. He has said that the environment of his team, and indeed his management, is unique.
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“We are different at Red Bull. You won’t see anyone in a suit and tie here, it’s more jeans and a T-shirt,” he said of the culture he fostered. “We play our music loud, we don’t give in, we’re not responsible for an engine manufacturer. We call it like we see it and we’re not afraid to have an opinion.”
When he took over the team, which was Jaguar, his staff numbered 450 staff. Today, having returned seven drivers’ championships and six drivers’ titles, it employs 1,500 people within Red Bull Racing, Red Bull Powertrains and Red Bull Advanced Technologies, with Horner as CEO across all three at them.
The days of running a team in an actual garage with a handful of mechanisms are long gone. The principal of the team sits on one of a small industry which is really a singular industry. The team has to be a design group, a research group, a manufacturing company, a publicity machine, a sports entity and very much a corporate business today. In terms of scale and complexity, the F1 team is unlike any other sporting organisation.
The demands are relentless and undeniable, perhaps more so than any other similar structure because success is measured not on a balance sheet but in fierce and very public competition. Horner, like all team principals, is well aware that he is the leading representative of the team, second only in terms of interest and status to the two drivers.
The role often attracts singular personalities and they are rarely shrinking violets. There is a given level of assertiveness, also decisiveness and often a ruthless streak. Horner has demonstrated these qualities time and time again, most notably when he chose to abandon his driving career at just 25 years of age. Recognizing with honest reflection that he was not in the upper echelon he acted quickly and decisively. It was an early example of his clear-sighted pragmatism as he tried to put his energy into the development of the Arden racing team he founded.
It was pointed out that he had real talent in that department because Arden was very successful and as a result he was headhunted for the Red Bull job. It was a huge task when he started and one he turned around with great speed. Five years after taking over he had secured the teams first world championship and would take four consecutive doubles with the drivers and constructors between 2010 and 2013.
Assessing the task, Horner is always clear that the most important role played by a team principal is in the management of people, with the leader setting the pace, direction and objectives.
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“It’s a people business,” he said. “It’s about understanding people and working with people to put the right people around you and give them the right direction and try to create the right environment for them.”
This requires considerable management skills and, for all that the scale of the organization clearly requires the art of delegation, people skills as well.
It is also unusual in requiring a functional element and it is significant that Horner has not backed away from F1 politics when rivals are under pressure. Playing this game is an integral part of the sport which further heightens the tension, especially given how difficult it has become during the 2021 campaign as co-driver Max Verstappen battles Lewis Hamilton throughout the whole season.
Horner has said that pressure in F1 is inevitable, which is hard to deny, an aspect of a complex and complex role that makes demands like no other.
