Max Verstappen is staying at Red Bull and it's all thanks to Christian Horner

Christian Horner

Christian Horner's parting gift just saved Red Bull from F1 irrelevance

Red Bull have Horner to thank

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Thursday 27 August 2026 18:45

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Max Verstappen is staying at Red Bull and there is only one person who the team can thank for that, and it is their former team principal Christian Horner.

Yes, the man who Red Bull unceremoniously fired after two decades in the job following the British Grand Prix just over a year ago.

Even now, some 13 months after he last worked for the team, Horner is the No. 1 reason why Verstappen will continue to race for them for an 11th full season in 2027.

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Before we get to why, we need to know where Red Bull are at now... and that's precisely nowhere. Verstappen has a car he often describes as 'undriveable' and he crashed for the third time in recent weeks at the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday.

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Red Bull trending downwards

Over the course of a season, Red Bull find themselves a distant fourth in the championship and with barely any hopes of winning a race. When you have a four-time world champion in your car, that's beyond bad.

Verstappen has four podiums this term including two second places, but that's only good enough for sixth in the championship and leaves him a distant 112 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli.

In addition, Red Bull has resembled something of a sinking ship in recent seasons. As well as Horner's exit, the likes of Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley, Helmut Marko, Rob Marshall and Will Courtenay have all departed, while Verstappen's race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase will be leaving for McLaren in 2028.

Max Verstappen's Dutch Grand Prix ended in the wall

Current team boss Laurent Mekies can preach about the young talent the team has but a mass exodus does not breed hope for the future, even if Marko's exit has since been covered by the appointment of Mercedes talent scout, Gwen Lagrue.

Adding to the exodus was engine supplier Honda, who after helping Verstappen to his first title in 2021, gradually pulled out of their F1 involvement via helping Red Bull set up their own power unit structure with Red Bull Power Trains, and this is where Horner comes back in.

Horner's big call

It was Horner's decision to make Red Bull self-sufficient from a power unit perspective. The team had been badly burned by Renault, who they felt held them back with a sub-par engine from the start of the hybrid era in 2014. While Honda gave them a title-winning engine, their shock 2021 exit left Red Bull on the back foot.

Horner decided they needed more stability and control in the engine department and so began the ambitious Red Bull Power Trains project.

Shortly after its foundation in 2022, Horner revealed why it wasn't started sooner as the bitter end with Renault loomed, telling Beyond the Grid: "I think because the investment at that time and the technology was so advanced, it would have been unimaginable and we probably weren’t mature enough as an organisation to take that on, whereas now we’re at a stage where we are that mature,.

"The regulations that have come in - with the homologated engines until the end of 2025 - has allowed us that period of time to build up Red Bull Powertrains for entry in 2026. And with regulations that are reasonably known, it enables us to take that plunge.

"And of course with the budget cap as well, which was an absolutely crucial element to becoming a power unit manufacturer because otherwise we would never be able to compete with the likes of the manufacturer teams that have unlimited R&D budget at their disposal."

Horner put much focus on this, poaching staff from Mercedes power unit team in the process. The 52-year-old Englishman claimed this was as many as 220 staff although that figure was disputed by Mercedes F1 chief Toto Wolff.

The 2026 season is the first season where without Honda assistance, Red Bull Power Trains - now in partnership with Ford - have been able to stand on their own unassisted. The results have been absolutely magnificent, almost too good.

Christian Horner helped set up Red Bull Power Trains with Ford assistance

Red Bull now have the best engine

Red Bull have now been confirmed to have the best engine in F1 following the FIA's latest round of ADUO findings.

In the two ADUO assessments from the FIA this season, RBPT have come out on top, which might sound like good news. But it does mean they have no extra upgrades to work on - meaning that it's the rest of the car that is lacking speed.

What matters though is that Horner executed the RBPT project in perfect fashion, even if he is no longer around to see the fruits of his labour.

Max Verstappen's biggest chance of leaving Red Bull was to join McLaren

And the engine project is crucial for Verstappen, who will want to know every bit of detail he can about it. In fact this is something that would have been a major factor in him turning down McLaren and electing instead to stay at Red Bull.

Mercedes are rumoured to not be as cooperative as their customer teams would like when it comes to sharing data on their engines, with former F1 star Ralf Schumacher saying: "The Verstappens trust almost no one. McLaren uses a Mercedes engine, and there are rumours that Mercedes doesn't immediately share all its know-how with its customer teams."

Verstappen having all the data he needs would have been a pull for him to stick with Red Bull. All the data is at his fingertips, and there are no worries over the politics that can interfere with customer teams. His work is his own work.

Horner has helped keep Verstappen at Red Bull

So where would Red Bull be without RBPT? Cooked is the answer. Imagine how bad things would be in 2026 if they didn't have the best engine.

That bleak scenario - with Red Bull trailing way behind their main rivals - would have made Verstappen's decision to leave much easier.

This is a massive bullet dodged at Red Bull, they have Verstappen for the next four years if they can turn round their performance from 2027.

Without Horner's RBPT project they would be staring at a future without Max and without the best engine, and facing F1 oblivion.

Thanks to Christian Edward Johnston Horner, they can sleep easily for now.

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Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

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F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen Christian Horner