The husband of former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell cut a subdued figure after the British Grand Prix and has now left his team after two decades of involvement and six constructors titles

Barely half an hour after Max Verstappen had crossed the Silverstone finishing line in fifth place, almost a minute behind Lando Norris, Christian Horner held his final media conference as the boss of Red Bull Racing. But it was not really a media conference.

There were no flash bulbs, no theatre, no grand announcements - just a huddle in a corner of his team’s motor home. He was subdued, to say the least.

Let’s face it, Horner’s days at Red Bull were numbered once the messaging scandal broke a year ago. To recap, it was alleged he had sent inappropriate texts to a female employee but a three-week internal investigation into the actions of the husband of former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell exonerated him of wrongdoing.

In fact, after screenshots of the alleged WhatsApp messages were leaked, Horner - who leaves having taken Red Bull to six constructors’ titles in 13 years - survived another investigation into possible coercive behaviour and was cleared again. But now he has gone.

And with his frequent encounters with the Verstappen family, no-one in the Formula One paddock and beyond believes the parting of the ways has been prompted solely by performance-related issues.. Of course they don’t.

But after a gamble on the set-up of Verstappen’s car did not pay off at the British Grand Prix and after the world champion’s team-mate Yuki Tsunoda had come home last of the 15 finishers, Horner fielded questions from a small group of us in Red Bull’s hospitality area. But he had few answers.

Horner had responded defiantly to the allegations that rocked F1 by helping Verstappen win a fourth world title on the spin but were beaten to the constructors’ championship by McLaren. And now a massive 288 points behind the leaders in the constructors’ championship, Horner seemed resigned to the McLaren dominance.

“Going forward, we will focus on the positives,” he said, now ironically. “We got pole position and performance in the car from the upgrades we brought.

"We got unlucky with the weather. It was worth a shot (running with low downforce) but it didn’t pay off.”

To say Horner was clutching at straws was an understatement. And when asked about Tsunoda’s performance, he pretty much rolled his eyes.

Don’t forget, Tsunoda had come in after Horner had hired and fired Liam Lawson in the space of a couple of months. Lawson was dropped after just two races of the 2025 season, a decision that, apparently, did not go down well with Verstappen, whose relationship with Horner has not always seemed harmonious in recent times.

And as their performance was coming under increasing scrutiny, George Russell added fuel to the fire around Red Bull by suggesting Mercedes were in talks with Verstappen. Maybe that is why one of Horner’s final comments as Red Bull team principal was a cutting throwaway return.

After listing the so-called positives from the British Grand Prix, he paused and said: “Oh … and we outscored George Russell.” And, bitterly it turned out to be Horner’s pay-off line.