Christian Horner is in a difficult position at Red Bull (Image: Getty)
has been backed as the man to lead into the future as the reigning world champions continue to struggle amid a host of key departures and off-track controversies this season.
The long-serving team principal has been at the heart of the drama this season and despite guiding Sebastian Vettel and to a combined seven Drivers’ Championship titles, Horner’s long-term future with the team has been questioned.
Spearheading the demand for Horner’s departure has been Jos Verstappen, who has been vocal about his distaste for ’s approach to the 2024 campaign, both on and off the racetrack. Former driver Mark Blundell, however, disagrees.
Speaking exclusively to Express Sport, in association with , Blundell said: “I think, actually, I think it’s time for to use all of his ability and his depth of knowledge now to put together a Grand Prix-winning team again. And so much of that is personnel-led.
“So it’s got to be, who is the next Adrian Newey? Who’s going to replace Newey in those years to come to design Grand Prix-winning cars and be a consistent guy, or girl, to put that on pen to paper, so to speak.
“I think, it’s always difficult when the teams get on the downward cycle, but a lot of it is cyclical and we’ve seen that, and it’s no different to watching now coming up on the upward trajectory. That’s something that we haven’t seen for many seasons and many years.
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Adrian Newey’s departure has headlined a tough year for Red Bull (Image: Getty)
“But it takes time to get everything put in place, I don’t think it’d be an overnight sort of change with to get back to the heady days that they’ve expected and believe that should be there all the time. But it’s achievable.”
With Newey’s move to Aston Martin confirmed and Jonathan Wheatley announced as Audi’s team principal ahead of their F1 arrival in 2025, Horner has moved fast to tie down other key personnel and create a new internal structure for the team.
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Technical director Pierre Wache was the first key leader to put pen to paper on new terms after turning down interest for , while race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase was promoted to head of race engineering at ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, while also penning a new contract.
Senior engineer Rich Wolverson, head of freight operations Gerrard O’Reilly and chief mechanic Phil Turner also have new roles as part of that restructure. Elsewhere, Hannah Schmitz is set to be promoted to head of race strategy after Will Courtenay was poached by .