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Horner reflects on the beginning at Red Bull: 'I was completely confused'
- Ludo van Denderen
Despite being only 51, Christian Horner is the longest-serving team boss in Formula 1. It has been 20 years to the day at Red Bull Racing, taking charge of the Austrian team on January 7, 2005. The Briton has seen many colleagues come and go, with Oliver Oakes being the latest new face among team bosses. Horner knows better than anyone how Oakes must have felt in the early days at Alpine.
It was a very different time when Horner made his entrance as team boss in Formula 1. But at the same time, it was not all totally different. Thinking back, he says: "I remember my first Formula 1 Commission meeting that I attended at Heathrow back in 2005."
Horner sat inbetween Dennis and Todt
"Ron Dennis was there, and Flavio [Briatore] was there, and Jean Todt was there for Ferrari. Bernie [Ecclestone] was running it with Max Mosley and so on, and I remember sitting through the meeting, and loads of things were discussed, but absolutely nothing was agreed, and coming out of the meeting, I was quite confused as to, other than the day of the week it was and when the next meeting was going to be, nothing had been concluded."
With a smile, Horner states that little has changed in this respect. "And oh was I glad to see the progress in the last 20 years has been significant, because I got the impression from Ollie following the meeting that he had no idea what had been agreed or that there were any conclusions to anything," he laughed. "But it's great to see new blood coming into Formula 1."
This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy
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