Christian Horner reveals what he really thinks about being F1's 'villain'

Things you may or not have expected to see in F1: Christian Horner comparing himself to Darth Vader...in a positive way.

The former Red Bull team principal has had plenty of time to deal with being a divisive figure in F1 - almost everybody prominent in the sport is, in one way or another - but things have ramped up significantly in the last couple of years.

First came the allegations of inappropriate behaviour toward a female colleague early in 2024 (of which Horner was cleared by an external lawyer after an investigation), which coloured much of the public's attitude toward the Brit.

That began a major slide in the outspoken team principal's popularity, exacerbated as key personnel announced their departures from the team before his own sacking last summer.

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Horner: You recognise you're part of a pantomime

Horner was infamously roundly booed at the F1 75 season launch event before the 2025 campaign kicked off, but said in a recent interview with The Times that he was then asked for a number of autographs, saying: “It confuses me. Because there’s a perception of unpopularity.”

He expressed a similar sentiment about returning to the paddock this summer at the British Grand Prix, saying that he had expected a frosty, or even hostile, welcome.

“But the reception was insane," he said.

"The amount of people saying, ‘When are you coming back?’ And, ‘It’s not the same without you’. You quickly recognise you’re part of a pantomime.”

It's at this point when Horner's sense of his public perception starts to become somewhat questionable, repeating the theme of him being 'F1's Darth Vader' which comes up in his forthcoming memoir 'Drive'.

Horner might fundamentally misunderstand Star Wars, or himself

“In the end, Darth Vader takes off his helmet and he’s a human being. And everybody loves him,” he told the newspaper.

Pressed on that recollection, he adds 'Return of the Jedi, I think that’s how it ends', before insisting 'He’s in there with Yoda and the other one'.

It's...hard to know what to pick up on first. Let's set aside him forgetting who Obi Wan Kenobi is, and go deeper on Horner's apparently belief that he can come back into the public's good graces by...taking off his helmet and showing people that he's a human being? If F1 figures will keep dragging Star Wars into this, we will too.

That's not how Return of the Jedi goes. Vader's redemption famously came from him sacrificing his life to save his son's. The helmet thing is incidental. Horner hasn't sacrificed anything in his time away to warrant a similar turn in public sentiment.

He got fired, and he's spent most of the year since then trying to find his way back into the sport with more power than ever before, with a team who'll give it to him.

There's no Vader there. There's no redemption. At some point, maybe someone will sit him down and gently tell him that people want him back in the public eye so that they can throw rotten tomatoes at him again, not because they've realised they love him.

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