F1 | Horner case: it could become a tsunami for Red Bull

There is a strict silence regarding the cause, but the effects that the Horner affair could trigger hold sway. The first, sensational, is the one relating to the potential risk to which the current Red Bull team principal could be subject.

The outcry caused by the story is proportional to the solidity of the person involved, Christian Horner is not only a team principal fresh from winning five world titles in the last three years, but he is the one who actually built the Red Bull team piece by piece to starting from 2005, the year in which the great boss of the Austrian company, Dietrich Mateschitz, decided to entrust him with the keys to the Milton Keynes structure, which had just been taken over by Jaguar.

Over the course of twenty long seasons Horner shaped Red Bull Racing with market coups (the first, and most sensational, was to snatch Adrian Newey from McLaren) and extensive work aimed at forming a working group that became the reference for everyone in the Formula 1 paddock.

For two years Horner has also laid the foundations for the most ambitious project ever undertaken by Red Bull, namely designing and building its own power unit. Also in this case Christian acted with an analytical recruitment plan, ransacking the Mercedes headquarters in Brixworth and thus guaranteeing himself an experienced working group, a crucial aspect for those who have to start a project from scratch. Imagining a Red Bull without Horner today is almost impossible, which is why the wave of amazement unleashed by the story that emerged yesterday was enormous.

Regardless of what the outcome of the story will be, there is a scenario that is increasingly taking shape, confirming the rumors that have been present in the paddock for some time. Just over a year after Mateschitz's death, the inevitable readjustment at the top of Red Bull sporting activities is far from definitive.

There is the operational headquarters, in Milton Keynes, the group headquarters, in Salzburg, as well as the Thai ownership (led by Chalerm Yoovidhya, son of the co-founder of Red Bull) which holds 51% of the company.

Mateschitz was the perfect glue, decisions were approved on his desk, but after his death his decision-making perimeter did not pass into the hands of a single person, even if formally the reference is the CEO Oliver Mintzlaff.

There is a suspicion that the Horner affair (not because of the case itself, but because of how it has been handled so far) may be destined to become part of a complex scenario. Confirmation of the ongoing internal investigation came from Salzburg, a few lines before silence fell.

According to rumors that emerged at the end of last year, Horner would have a privileged relationship with Yoovidhya, and this could be the cause of some resentment on the Austrian front led by Mintzlaff, a side more familiar also to Helmut Marko, fresh from renewing his contract in his role as 'special advisor'.

For Horner, the current affair is of a personal nature, but the importance of his corporate role, regardless of the outcome, could determine a watershed in the history of Red Bull Racing.

The only certain thing is that on the Austria-Thailand axis they don't have much time available, there is a season that will start in a few weeks and the launch of the new single-seater in a few days.

Horner could be regularly in his place, where we have seen him over the last twenty years, the price to pay would be having to answer some uncomfortable questions in the first few days but, as always happens in Formula 1, when a very busy Grand Prix begins, if not everything, it ends behind us. If, however, sensational decisions were to arrive, then the team that won 21 times in 22 games last year will suffer the hardest earthquake in its history, opening up further scenarios that are currently difficult to predict or even just imagine.