Christian Horner is happy to be the villain if it means he’s winning

Few team principals draw quite the fan response as Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner. Love him or hate him, they’re often drawn to him like a moth to a flame.

That doesn’t bother Horner in the slightest. In an exclusive interview with PlanetF1.com, the Red Bull boss pointed out that it’s his unrelenting drive to win that makes him a polarising figure — and winning is something he’s quite content to do.

Christian Horner: “The best way to become unpopular in this business is to win”

While team principals have always played an integral role in the success or failure of a Formula 1 team, the perception of modern bosses amongst fans has evolved dramatically over the last few years.

Whether you point to the rise of social media, the increasing popularity of Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive, an evolving media landscape that relies on driver and principal reaction, or some combination of all three, fans will inevitably hear from a team principal more regularly in 2025 than ever before in F1’s 75-year history.

The result is a certain amount of transparency, yes — but an equal amount of public gamesmanship that can keep fans on their toes.

Christian Horner is a master of the modern team principal role, capable of orchestrating success behind the scenes and making the most of his public-facing appearances to translate Red Bull’s message to the masses. And when that message is all about winning, well — it can make for quite a strong response.

Dig deeper into Formula 1:

👉 Explained: What Liberty Media’s huge $4.8bn MotoGP takeover means for F1 fans

👉 F1 driver helmets: Every driver’s design revealed for the F1 2025 season

Speaking to PlanetF1.com in an exclusive interview, Horner pointed out that he’s well aware of the strange space his persona inhabits.

“Inevitably, you’re not going to be able to please everybody,” he explained. “Things get played out in the media and so on. But I’ve always been the same person.

“I’ve always operated the way I operate. I expect 100 per cent, and I’ll give 100 per cent.

“But sometimes that makes you unpopular with your rivals.

“The best way to become unpopular in this business is to win, and we’ve done a fair amount of that over the last few years.”

And if winning makes you unpopular with your rivals, it can also make you unpopular with the ultra-passionate fans who follow Formula 1, many of whom may be rooting for one of those aforementioned rivals.

There may also be a certain element of national pride, too. F1 boasts a prominent fanbase in England, where many team headquarters are also located; however, many of those UK-based teams are licensed in other countries, which means they don’t necessarily represent England, nor do they feel the necessity to hire British drivers.

Red Bull is a great example. Despite its Milton Keynes base and its British boss, the team remains licensed in Austria and has hired a slew of prominent international talents who have brought glory to, say, the Netherlands, Australia, Mexico, Germany, and more.

Horner understands that that might cause a bit of animosity within the local F1 fanbase.

“Since David Coulthard, we’ve never had a British driver,” he told PlanetF1.com.

“We won four times with Sebastian Vettel, who beat Lewis [Hamilton] and Fernando [Alonso]. We’ve done it again with Max [Verstappen], who obviously beat Lewis in 2021, and then Lando Norris and George Russell last year.

“So we’ve never been sort of a home favourite, being an Austrian-owned team, despite being very British-centric in being based in Milton Keynes just up the road from Silverstone.”

Would Horner be a more popular figure in his home country if he were to sign a British driver? Perhaps. But for him, the primary goal is to win.