Horner impressed early on: 'He can play that political game well'
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Christian Horner has been Red Bull Racing's team boss for 20 years. According to Vitantonio Liuzzi, this is because of some of the Briton's unique characteristics, which Liuzzi himself was a witness to early in his career.
Vitantonio Liuzzi made an early acquaintance with team boss Christian Horner. Initially as a driver for Arden, the Formula 3000 racing team Horner was team boss of, but later also as part of Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso. Back then, when Horner was just starting out in F1, Liuzzi already saw certain characteristics in the Briton, natural to a good team boss.
What is Horner like as a team boss?
''What they saw in his mentality, in his approach in his handling of the team, it was super organised. He had everything printed, he knew where he wanted to arrive, he had the British approach that also is really important many times in dealing in Formula 1, and he was always really smart, 'cause he knew where he wanted to end up and he knew how to end up there,'' Liuzzi stated in the Inside Line Podcast.
''He could be really political when he wants. He really knows how to talk and he's super smart. So I think these are the qualities of a team principal that made him arrive where he is now and he fully deserved the position.''
Liuzzi worked closely with Horner for two years as a driver for his teams. In 2004 at Arden and in 2005, the Italian drove four races for Red Bull Racing. Liuzzi then became a full-time driver at Toro Rosso, before making the switch to Force India and later on to HRT. His best result was a sixth place which came in 2007, driving for Toro Rosso in the Chinese Grand Prix. He would go on to mimic that result, this time driving for Force India in 2010 at the Korean Grand Prix.
This article was written in collaboration with Norberto Mujica.
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