Revealed: How Christian Horner was informed of his shock Red Bull sacking, one year on from sexting scandal - 'as clay pigeon shoot exposed team principal's crumbling relationship with bosses'
Horner was dismissed on Wednesday after 20 years at the constructor, having overseen the team's transformation from upstart on the grid to winner of six constructors' championships and eight drivers' championships.
While the official reason for Horner's firing remains unstated, it comes almost exactly a year after the team principal was engulfed in a high-profile investigation.
In February last year, the 51-year-old was accused of sexual harassment and coercive and controlling behaviour by a female employee. He was twice cleared, initially after an internal investigation conducted by a lawyer, and then by another lawyer who dismissed the female employee's appeal.
The episode cast a long shadow over the team and left Horner's public image severely tarnished.
And now, German outlet Bild has revealed how the fallout from that turbulent period culminated in Horner's dramatic sacking.
The veteran team principal was reportedly informed of his Red Bull dismissal in a London hotel suite, blindsided by the energy drink empire's top brass.
Horner was told face-to-face by advisor Helmut Marko and global sports director Oliver Mintzlaff on Tuesday afternoon. It is understood that he was left stunned by the news.
While the sacking may have shocked Horner personally, the groundwork had been quietly laid for weeks.
Mintzlaff reportedly began privately considering personnel changes during Red Bull's home race - the Austrian Grand Prix - at the end of June.
A decisive conversation reportedly took place at Red Bull's headquarters between Mintzlaff and the team's billionaire owners, Chalerm Yoovidhya and Mark Mateschitz.
One week later, during a Zoom call, Mintzlaff confirmed the decision: Horner would be removed - the owners gave the green light.
It is understood that Horner's expanding grip on power within the Red Bull structure, including control over marketing, technical, and engine departments, had caused friction at the top.
His reluctance to step back from these roles reportedly angered Yoovidhya, who at one point threatened to cut off contact unless Horner complied.
Max Verstappen sided with Marko when the advisor threatened to quit during a power struggle between himself and Horner in early 2024
Perhaps the clearest sign that Horner's position was becoming untenable came just days before the British Grand Prix.
At his annual clay pigeon shoot event near Oxford - a tradition typically attended by Red Bull's inner circle - Yoovidhya and Max Verstappen were both conspicuously absent.
Verstappen excused himself with a supposed stomach bug, but his absence was noted, especially as tensions between driver and boss have grown.
On the track, Red Bull are in unfamiliar territory. After dominating the sport in recent years, they've slipped to fourth in the constructors' standings.
Verstappen - winner of the last four titles - is only third in the Drivers' Championship, behind the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Even more troubling for Red Bull is that Verstappen has an exit clause that allows him to leave if he isn't in the top three by the end of July.
Throughout it all, Verstappen's loyalty has remained with Marko, the man who discovered and backed him as a teenager.
When Marko threatened to quit during a power struggle between himself and Horner in early 2024, Verstappen made his stance clear. From then onwards, Horner's position at the team was precarious.
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Daily Mail
17 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Pensioner, 69, 'becomes latest British drug mule' after being caught 'trying to smuggle 60kg of cannabis resin onto Spanish ferry'
A British pensioner has been arrested in Spain after allegedly attempting to smuggle 60kg of cannabis resin worth an estimated £350,000 onto a ferry. The 69-year-old, who has not been named, was caught red-handed as he prepared to board a vessel from Ceuta, Spain's North African enclave, bound for Algeciras, near Gibraltar. Spanish police swooped yesterday after a sniffer dog helping with routine checks became visibly agitated near the man's UK-plated vehicle, prompting officers to carry out a thorough search. But what they found was staggering. Authorities stumbled across 62.3kg of cannabis resin stashed away in a concealed compartment built into the roof of the car. The packages were branded with names including 'Dream Gelato' and 'Serial Milk', suggesting the drugs were prepped and packaged for illegal distribution. Local authorities have yet to confirm the street value of the seizure, but early estimates suggest it could fetch upwards of £350,000 on the black market. The Brit - believed to reside in the UK - was taken into custody on the spot and is now being held by police. It's not yet known where he was ultimately headed, or whether he was acting alone. He is due to appear in court within the coming hours, where a judge will decide whether to release him on bail or remand him in custody as the criminal investigation continues. A spokesman for the Civil Guard in Ceuta said: 'Yesterday around 6pm officers from the First Fiscal and Border Company, along with colleagues from Ceuta's Cynological Group who inspect vehicles preparing to embark on ferries heading to Algeciras, carried out a check on a UK-plated vehicle with a specialist sniffer dog that indicated the possibility there were drugs inside. 'A full check on the areas the specialist dog had marked as possible hiding places for the drugs subsequently took place. 'A total of 62.3 kilos of cannabis resin was discovered in a secret compartment in the roof of the vehicle. 'The driver, a British man born in 1956 who was registered as a UK resident, was subsequently arrested. 'The suspect will now go before a court in Ceuta as the suspected author of a crime of drug trafficking. 'The drugs have been seized and handed over to a central government delegation and the vehicle is now under the supervision of the courts.' In May a 79-year-old British pensioner was arrested at a Chilean airport with £200,000 of powerful crystal meth. Bowls fans and fishing enthusiast William Eastman, from Milborne Port, Somerset, is currently languishing in prison in the south American country after being arrested at Santiago International Airport with five kilos of methamphetamine. He claimed to have no idea he was carrying drugs and told cops he only agreed to carry the suitcase containing the drugs on the promise of a £3.7million reward. The frail senior citizen produced a certificate with the prize money pledge as a 'phoney get-out' before being taken into custody when he was stopped after getting off a flight from Cancun in Mexico. He is expected to be formally charged in around three months time after police and prosecutors complete their ongoing investigation. News today of the Ceuta arrest came hours after police revealed they had arrested a 27-year-old British man at Lanzarote airport after four kilos of marijuana buds worth more than £6,000 was discovered in his luggage. The suitcase had been checked in for a flight to Tenerife South. Cops said the luggage had an 'unusually low weight for its size and was giving off a strong smell.' The unnamed man has already appeared in court but it was not clear today whether he had been remanded in custody or released on bail. In June it emerged a glamorous British OnlyFans model was languishing in a hellhole jail after being caught trying to smuggle nearly £200,000 worth of drugs into Spain. Clara Wilson, from Huthwaite, Notts, has been charged with a drug running offence after more than 34kg of cannabis were found in her suitcase at Barcelona's El Prat airport. And the pretty 36-year-old has been warned she faces being caged for up to four years and ordered to pay more than £750,000 in fines if convicted. Clara was held as she got off a Qatar Airways flight from Doha on January 20 although she is thought to have travelled to Barcelona from Bangkok with stopovers in India and Qatar. She was remanded to a prison near the Catalan capital two days after her arrest and has been held there ever since as part of her pre-trial detention. No trial date has yet been set, but an indictment shows public prosecutors have already demanded a four-year prison sentence and huge fine payment totalling £758,000 on conviction. Under Spanish law the British model can be held for up to two years in prison before she has to be bailed, but well-placed sources said they expected her to be tried later this year. At the end of May Spanish police went public with the arrests of a British couple aged 33 and 34 held at Valencia airport after 33 kilos of marihuana was found in their luggage. They claimed they were tourists coming from Thailand.
The Sun
24 minutes ago
- The Sun
How Constance Marten turned from party girl to homeless tearaway who raided bins & sparked one of UK's biggest manhunts
Ed Southgate Mike Sullivan Alex West Published: Invalid Date, ARISTOCRAT Constance Marten grew up in one of England's finest stately homes and ended up living in a tent foraging bins for food while on the run with convicted rapist Mark Gordon. The 37-year-old former Tatler 'It Girl" hails from landed gentry and her family had close links to the Royals. 10 10 10 But her life spiralled out of control after she and Gordon, 50, met by chance in a North London incense shop in 2014. The couple went off the radar from her friends and family and formed their own self-styled cult living apart from society, with Constance even posing as an Irish traveller when she attended hospital while pregnant. Their life on the edge ended in the tragic death of their fifth child, new-born baby Victoria, after their four previous children were taken into care amid allegations of domestic violence by Gordon. Constance had an idyllic early childhood growing up with her three younger siblings at Grade II listed Crichel House, set on a 5,000-acre estate near Wimborne, Dorset. But two key events left Constance traumatised and vulnerable before she fell for Gordon. When Constance was nine, her father Napier, a former page boy to the late Queen, left his wife Virginie de Selliers, and children to become a nomadic hippie travelling the globe. He spoke about an out-of-body experience while with a group of Aborigines on a cliff-top and an encounter with whales in Hawaii that made him cry 'almost non-stop' for a week. The family estate passed on to oldest son Maximillian, who sold the house and part of the estate to an American hedge fund owner for £34 million in 2013, leaving Constance devastated. Constance broke down as she gave evidence at her trial about a 'traumatic childhood event' and the sale of Crichel House against her grandmother's stated wishes in her will. The second disturbing experience came when Constance was 19 and she attended a Nigerian Christian sect with her devoutly religious mother after leaving RC girls' school St Mary's Shaftesbury, in Dorset. Harrowing moment cop find remains of Constance Marten's baby Victoria stuffed in Lidl bag filled with rubbish Constance spent six months with the Synagogue, Church of All Nations, in Lagos, living under the dictatorial rule of televangelist Temitope Balogun 'TB' Joshua. She and other white people at the sect's compound were humiliated by the guru, forced to eat his leftovers and placed in social exile for not being subservient enough to him or talking about their past. Constance was forced to call cult chief TB Joshua 'Daddy' and told Cosmopolitan magazine in 2013: 'The leader looked me in the eye and said, 'Your family doesn't matter anymore. I'm your father now.'' This comes as... Constance Marten and lover found GUILTY over death of baby daughter after living off-grid in freezing temps while on run Chilling footage shows Marten and partner Mark Gordon after they dumped their newborn baby's pram Gordon revealed to be an evil rapist 'Wealthy' Marten and Gordon used trust money for cabs while evading cops – but baby had no clothes before death The harrowing moment cops find remains of baby Victoria stuffed in a Lidl bag filled with rubbish A national safeguarding panel is now looking at the case as police have called for new laws to protect unborn children Writer Matthew McNaught, who investigated the church and spoke to Constance about her ordeal, told The Sun: 'She struggled afterwards in the same way as all the other disciples. 'She found it a very traumatic time, especially the fact it was a very controlling environment.' After Constance returned to the UK, she attended Leeds University, initially studying Philosophy before switching to Arabic, Middle Eastern History and Islamic Studies. Friends at the time remember her as a vivacious, talented and charismatic globe-trotting party girl. In 2008, aged 22, she appeared on Tatler magazine's 'Babe of the Month' page. In an accompanying interview, she recalled her privileged childhood growing up at Crichel House with 'days of naked picnics, siestas amid hail bails and tractor scoops.' Revealing a rebel streak, Constance said she loved drinking cider and wanted to get a tortoise tattooed on the bottom of her foot. The best party she had ever been to, she recalled, was at the home of Viscount Cranborne in Dorset. She said: 'There was a gambling tent and bunches of grapes hanging from the walls. It was like a debauched feast from Ancient Greece.' 10 Constance also travelled the world and went to festivals including Burning Man and Wireless, saying: 'Dance is my oxygen.' She spent her summer holidays in 2010 working for a film production company in Cairo. One of her colleagues there described her as being 'very decent, nice and friendly' and having 'great potential'. But she added that Constance sometimes chose the 'wrong' type of man, adding: 'She was somehow gullible.' Constance graduated with a 2.1 in June 2012 and moved to London but struggled to establish herself in any long-term jobs. She became a researcher for Qatar-owned news channel Al-Jazeera, and took a journalism course in 2014. Then she met Mark Gordon at an incense shop in Tottenham, North London, in 2014. Birmingham-born Gordon had moved to the US as a child and served a 20-year jail sentence for a brutal rape in Florida he carried out when aged 14. He was deported back to Britain in 2010 and worked as a labourer and lived in Ilford, East London. Timeline of baby 'killing' - how couple evaded cops CONSTANCE Marten and Mark Gordon allegedly sparked a 54-day manhunt across the UK after vanishing with their baby Victoria. Here's how the pair's journey began... December 20, 2022 Marten and Gordon booked into a holiday cottage in Northumberland, with the rental due to end on Boxing Day. The owner told jurors he found the property in "something of a state" on December 28. December 24, 2022 The couple claim their baby daughter was born this day but this has been disputed by prosecutors. December 28, 2022 Their Suzuki broke down on the M18 motorway so a recovery driver took them to a nearby Sainsbury's. There was allegedly no sign of the baby but the back and side windows of the car had been blocked by clothing. January 4, 2023 Marten and Gordon checked into the Ibis hotel at the Lymm Services in Cheshire then later the AC Hotel in Manchester. January 5, 2023 The couple's Peugeot 206 catches fire on the M61 motorway in Greater Manchester. Police launch an urgent probe after finding placenta, burner phones and Marten's passport, jurors were told. She and Gordon are taken to a Morrisons store in Bolton by a member of the public before being seen on CCTV at the nearby Bolton Interchange station. The couple allegedly use Marten's trust for a taxi to Liverpool, then a £400 cab to Harwich in Essex. Cab driver Ali Yaryar, who picked the couple up from Liverpool, told the court: "I think the baby had no clothes". January 6, 2023 The couple arrive in Harwich and check into a Premier Inn at around 3am. They later move to the Fryatt Hotel, where they paid in cash, it was said. January 7, 2023 Marten and Gordon travel by taxi to Colchester then to East Ham in London. The couple allegedly buy a buggy from Argos then grab another cab to Whitechapel. They ate in a Brick Lane restaurant then dump the new buggy - choosing instead to keep Victoria in a Lidl bag, jurors heard. January 8, 2023 The couple spend £475 on a taxi from Hornsey to Newhaven in East Sussex and walk to the South Downs National Park. January 9, 2023 Both Marten and Gordon claim baby Victoria died on this day - making her 16 days old, the court was told. It is said there is no way of knowing this for sure. January 12, 2023 Marten is captured buying snacks and petrol with cash but there was no sign of the baby. Prosecutors say she bought the fuel to cremate the baby but changed her mind. January 16, 2023 Marten and Gordon are seen setting up a tent in Stanmer Park Nature Reserve in the South Downs despite the cold weather. February 16/17, 2023 The couple are spotted near Hollingbury Golf Course in rural Sussex allegedly pushing a buggy with no baby. Their tent is later seen in Coldean Lane in Brighton A driver sees the pair walking towards Stanmer Park with something under Marten's puffer jacket, the court heard. February 19, 2023 Gordon and Marten are allegedly seen in their tent in the park with a very young baby with a "wobbly" head. Jurors told the baby had no socks, blanket or hat on. February 27, 2023 The couple are arrested in Hollingbury Place in Brighton but do not reveal Victoria's location at first, it is said. March 1, 2023 Tragic Victoria is found dead in a Lidl bag covered in rubbish inside a disused shed "like refuse", the court is told. Describing the chance encounter with Gordon, Constance told jurors: 'There was a lady who left her handbag. 'The shopkeeper knew me, she said can you watch over him [Gordon]. We laughed about it. I saw him later and went to a coffee shop. We were good friends then we went travelling together.' In 2015, Constance joined the East 15 Acting School where friends said they heard about her boyfriend but never met him. They said she became increasingly erratic before dropping out after a year. Constance' last picture on social media showed her dancing at an electronic music event in East London in June 2016, just before she vanished. It later emerged she had married Gordon that year in Peru, in a ceremony not legally recognised in the UK. Her mum hired a private investigator for two weeks in October 2016 to find her, and her dad hired one in 2017 and again in 2021. Living off her trust fund allowance of £2,500-a-month, later raised to £3,400, Constance and Gordon travelled across Britain, sleeping in tents and cheap lodgings and regularly swapping cars and burner phones in a deluded attempt to escape from her family's private detectives. She fell pregnant with her first child in 2017 , prompting a London hospital to raise concerns as she had not received antenatal care. In September that year, a national hospital alert was issued to find the couple. They had fled to Wales and were sleeping in a festival-style tent, with bin bags of clothes and bottles of urine at the entrance. Constance appeared at a Welsh hospital with Gordon in winter 2017, both using fake names. She put on a fake Irish accent saying she was a traveller without a GP or NHS number and that she was no longer with her unborn's father. But they were found out and social services alerted. Constance said: 'I made a pact with the devil.' 10 10 In spring 2018, the couple turned up out of the blue at a flat in Llanelli, North Wales, with their first baby and a pram stuffed with more than £10,000 in cash. Landlady Guiseppine Allegri told how Constance paid up front for two flats - one for her, and one for Mark across the road. She told The Sun: 'They came from nowhere one day. She had a baby in the pram. The baby was covered in bags and bags and bags. They were hiding the baby.' Guiseppine told them babies were not allowed but bent the rules for them after Constance insisted 'he's awfully good'. The landlady provided an insight into the couple's relationship, saying of Gordon: 'He was very possessive and controlling of Constance. It was him who spoke all the time. 'I told her to go back to her family. I couldn't see why she was with him. He was so creepy. But she thought Mark was the best thing. 'Constance told me he was an honourable and good man. But she said he had difficulties and had been abused as a child.' She said Gordon never worked during the six months he was in the flat, and Marten paid for everything. Guiseppine added: 'He was very domineering. He was the boss. There was never a smile on him, never an honest smile. He had an angry smile.' The couple left in a rush in a van with two men who said the couple went to Birmingham. Guiseppine said they left around £350 of damage caused by candles and joss sticks, adding: 'I think they were running away.' There is no record of Constance and Gordon in Birmingham but they later ended up in a house in Ley Street in Ilford, East London. Their first child had a bouncy castle in his room, and Constance complained about having to find other ways to get money because she was getting less from the family trust. Neighbours said the couple rarely left the house during daylight and that paranoid Gordon installed a CCTV camera as soon as they arrived. One told The Sun: 'Sometimes we saw them coming and going at night but they were not neighbourly. 'Social services came at times to knock but they didn't open the door. They came again and again.' Constance conceived their second child while at the house but in November 2019, while five weeks pregnant, Constance fell from a window rupturing her spleen after apparently being pushed by Gordon. 10 10 Gordon initially refused to let paramedics into their home and during later care proceedings, Gordon was blamed for the incident. Constance told police she had fallen while trying to adjust the TV aerial outside the window, but officers found the TV had a blanket over it and was not in use. No further action was taken and Constance tried to discharge herself from the hospital. Constance then took the children to Ireland on her own and tried to find a house to pay in cash to stay in. Her father applied for ward of court proceedings and Constance attended a police station before the two children were taken into care. A separation order was made when Constance refused to go into a residential unit when her third child was born. Constance and Gordon regularly failed to attend contact sessions, claiming social workers were lying about them. And she hid behind a door to hide her fourth pregnancy from an unplanned social worker visit in 2021. But in February 2021, a judge ordered the four children should be adopted. Then in early 2022, she fell pregnant with Victoria. The couple hid the pregnancy and frequently moved between local authorities so none would have jurisdiction over her. They moved between AirBnBs in Sheffield and Leeds weeks before going on the run. Constance was missing when Constance' brother Max married jewellery designer Ruth Aymer in a high society wedding featured in Vogue magazine, in September that year. Their father Napier was also absent. On January 5 2023, days after Victoria's birth, Constance and Gordon were making plans to leave the country. They were driving along the M62 in Manchester when their Peugeot 208 caught fire and they ran, leaving £2,000 cash, her passport, her card and placenta. Constance told the court their plan 'disintegrated' from this point, spiralling into one of Britain's biggest manhunts which ended when Victoria was found dead in a disused allotment shed.
Sky News
24 minutes ago
- Sky News
Trump is clearly fed up with Putin - but will his shift in tone force Russia to the negotiating table?
As ever, there is confusion and key questions are left unanswered, but Donald Trump's announcement on Ukraine and Russia today remains hugely significant. His shift in tone and policy on Ukraine is stark. And his shift in tone (and perhaps policy) on Russia is huge. Ever since Mr Trump returned to the White House he has flatly refused to side with Ukraine over the Russian invasion. He has blamed Ukraine and Joe Biden for the incursion but has never been willing to accept that Russia is the aggressor and that Kyiv has a legitimate right to defend itself. Today, all that changed. In a clear signal that he is fed up with Vladimir Putin and now fully recognises the need to help Ukraine defend itself, he announced the US will dramatically increase weapons supplies to Kyiv. But, in keeping with his transactional nature and in a reflection of the need to keep his isolationist "America-First" base on side, he has framed this policy shift as a multi-billion dollar "deal" in which America gains financially. American weapons are to be "sold" to NATO partners in Europe who will then either transfer them to Ukraine or use them to bolster their own stockpiles as they transfer their own existing stocks to Kyiv. "We've made a deal today," the president said in the Oval Office. "We are going to be sending them weapons, and they are paying for them. We are manufacturing, they are going to be paying for it. Our meeting last month was very successful... these are wealthy nations." 2:27 This appears to be a clever framing of the "deal". Firstly, America has always benefited financially by supplying weapons to Ukraine because much of the investment has been in American factories, American jobs and American supply chains. While the details are not entirely clear, the difference now appears to be that the weapons would be bought by the Europeans or by NATO as an alliance. The Americans are the biggest contributor to NATO, and so if the alliance is buying the weapons, America too will be paying, in part, for the weapons it is selling. However, if the weapons are being bought by individual NATO members to replenish their own stocks, then it may be the case that the US is not paying. NATO officials referred all questions on this issue to the White House, which has not yet provided clarity to Sky News. It is also not yet clear what type of weapons will be made available and whether it will include offensive, as well defensive, munitions. 1:49 A key element of the package will likely be Patriot missile batteries, 10 to 15 of which are believed to be currently in Europe. Under this deal, it is understood that some of them will be added to the six or so batteries believed to be presently in Ukraine. New ones would then be purchased from US manufacturers to backfill European stocks. A similar arrangement may be used for other weapons. The president also issued the Russian leader with an ultimatum, saying that Putin had 50 days to make a peace deal or else face 100% "secondary tariffs". It's thought this refers to a plan to tariff, or sanction, third countries that supply Russia with weapons and buy Russian oil. This, the Americans hope, will force those countries to apply pressure on Russia. But the 50-day kicking of the can down the road also gives Russia space to prevaricate. So, a few words of caution: first, the Russians are masters of prevarication. Second, Trump tends to let deadlines slip. And third, we all know Trump can flip-flop on his position repeatedly. 2:00 Maybe the most revealing aspect of all this came when a reporter asked Mr Trump: "How far are you willing to go if Putin sends more bombs in the coming days?" "Don't ask me questions like that..." Mr Trump doesn't really know what to do if Mr Putin continues to take him for a ride. Mr Biden, before him, supplied Ukraine with the weapons to continue fighting. If Mr Trump wants to end this, he may need to provide Ukraine with enough weapons to win. But that would prolong, or even escalate, a war he wants to end now.
