Christian Horner: The story behind the longest-serving team boss in Formula 1

Christian Horner was born on November 16, 1973, into a family that had been working in the automotive industry for quite some time. His father and grandfather owned a company that supplied parts to engine manufacturers. Not surprisingly, Horner grew up with a passion for cars.

Horner began his career as a racing driver

He was interested in becoming a racing driver himself, so he started karting. This allowed him to win a Formula Renault scholarship, which gave him the opportunity to further his racing career. He raced in various classes, including the British Formula Renault Championship and British Formula Two, where he achieved good results.

Yet his vocation was not racing. In 1997, he made the switch to Formula 3000, where he also set up his own team, Arden. He bought a second-hand trailer for his team from Helmut Marko, who at the time was in charge of the Red Bull Junior Team, and was thus among the competition.

Not meant for racing

During a test in 1998, the then 25-year-old Horner was driving behind Juan Pablo Montoya at the Estoril circuit, when he came to the conclusion that he did not have the drive for racing that he saw in Montoya. At that point, Horner decided to quit as a driver, and concentrate fully on the development of the Arden team.

In doing so, he took a big risk, because one of the most important things in the Formula 1 world he didn't have enough of: Money. Horner had to borrow money from banks and from his father, and wriggled around to get the budget together to run another season with two cars.

Then there was Dave Richards, owner of Prodrive. They were working with a Russian oil company called Lukoil, which wanted to buy a 50 percent stake in the team. This was because the boss's son, Viktor Maslov, wanted to race in Formula 3000.

When Richards asked Horner how much it would cost to become one 50/50 shareholder in Arden, Horner said it was 'a completely ridiculous amount', which Richards agreed to. From then on, the budget problem was solved. A year later he bought back the share from Lukoil.

Successes in Formula 3000

In 2002, Horner took another risk: He knew he needed two fast drivers to make the team a success, so he parted ways with Lukoil and with it Viktor Maslov. Tomas Enge and Bjorn Wirdheim joined as drivers, and Arden won the team championship that season. Also in 2003, Arden managed to win the team championship, while Wirdheim became the drivers' champion.

2004 was the last season that the Formula 3000 class would exist. Two new drivers came to the team: Vitantonio Liuzzi and Robert Doornbos. Again, Horner and Marko met: Marko was the manager of Liuzzi, who came to Arden with sponsorship from Red Bull.

Liuzzi dominated the season with seven wins in ten races, and with the help of Doornbos, who also won a race, managed to secure both the drivers' and constructors' titles.

The move to Formula 1

In the fall of 2004, Red Bull bought the Formula One team from Jaguar, and in January 2005 appointed Christian Horner, who was eager to have his own team in Formula One, as team principal. Horner thus became the youngest team boss ever, at the age of 32.

Horner had only a short time before the new season started, but still managed to achieve fourth and seventh place in the Australian Grand Prix with drivers David Coulthard and Christian Klien. That year, the team scored 34 points, making a big step up from the nine points Jaguar scored the year before.

In November 2005, Adrian Newey came to Red Bull Racing as CTO, a move in which Horner played a major role. In 2006, the team's first podium was with David Coulthard, after which Horner jumped into the pool wearing nothing more than a Superman cape. Robert Doornbos became a test and reserve driver that year, driving the last three races of the season in place of Christian Klien.

In 2007, Mark Webber came to Red Bull and the team switched from Ferrari to Renault engines. However, they were plagued by reliability problems and experienced many dropouts. 2008 was also difficult, and Coulthard announced his retirement at the end of this season.

Turning Point for Red Bull

2009 was a turning point for Red Bull: Sebastian Vettel joined the team, and the reliability problems were largely solved. Together with Webber, he managed to win six races.

2010 marked the start of Red Bull's dominance, which would last four years. Sebastian Vettel became world champion and Red Bull won the constructors' title. This made Horner the youngest team owner ever to win an F1 championship. In 2011, 2012 and 2013 the team also became champions of both drivers and constructors.

However, that dominance came to an end when the hybrid era entered Formula 1. Renault failed to build a reliable and competitive hybrid power source, and the team started with a backlog that continues to this day, although visible progress has been made in recent years.

Max Verstappen

In 2016, Red Bull made a bold gamble by bringing 18-year-old Max Verstappen to the team, and moving Daniil Kvyat back to Toro Rosso. It turned out to be a good gamble, though, as Verstappen immediately won his debut race for the team and managed to make a big impression in the years that followed as well. Apart from the good results, Red Bull Racing gained a huge fan base in the Netherlands.

Under Christian Horner's leadership, a close-knit team has emerged with a good atmosphere, but where everyone is expected to give their all. Horner always tries to get the best out of each team member, but doesn't interfere too much with the expertise of others. In his own words, "There's no point in hiring a specialist and then telling them how to do their job.

This is clearly visible in the working methods of the team's pit crew, who, even under high pressure, all know their task and cooperate excellently in this. Horner has turned Red Bull Racing into a well-oiled machine in which all departments are synchronized with each other. One thing, however, remains to be done: Winning championships. The now 47-year-old Horner will undoubtedly want to be the one who can take the team to great heights again, and will certainly not be elsewhere with his thoughts until then.