Christian Horner: The Red Bull Boss

Christian Horner has a lot of fans. Most credit the suave Englishman for Red Bull Racing’s rise from the back of the grid to the podium. Cool, clean and cultured, Horner is a model leader. He’s no Flavio Briatore – no diamond studs and hot model girlfriends. Though having been in charge of Formula One’s hottest team right now, accolades are something surely he receives on a regular basis. But even he must blush every time he comes across the Hornettes.

The Red Bull Racing team principal, one of the younger faces of authority in the pitlane, has to turn a deep shade of beetroot when he reads lines such as, “His perfectly proportioned bod fills the RB team trousers spectacularly well,” on www.hornerfanclub.co.uk, a fabulous but superficial, cringeworthy online gathering of F1 fans dedicated to the cheeky charm and classic style of the man.

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On the forum, the aesthetics of the 'magnificently coiffured' Horner are deemed more interesting than his actual management skills or racing acumen. Talk veers from 'What does he wear best? A checked or a striped shirt?' to 'Can grown men carry off a gingham scarf?', and more sport related talk like 'Are those Red Bull trousers tight enough?'

Trouser fitting and jumpers apart -- there's clearly more to the man, if you'd ask us -- Horner has fit into his role at Red Bull Racing with consummate ease.

A former racer, Horner was brought into the Cristal-sipping, diamond-dripping world of Formula 1 in 2005 to turn around a team that was seen as a billionaire’s – Red Bull creator Dietrich Mateschitz – play toy. Five years later, under Horner and with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in cars created by designer par excellence Adrian Newey, Red Bull Racing won the drivers’ championship and the constructors’ title as well in 2010.

“It’s been a lot of hard work, I can tell you that,” he tells FHM from his office in Milton Keynes. “We were a private, independent team but we haven’t lost our values. The biggest challenge when Jaguar became Red Bull Racing was to overhaul the infrastructure. Adrian was one of the key recruitments we made. It took a lot of time but we made it,” he says.

Horner’s rise from a Formula Three driver to team principal was accomplished in 11 years. The 38-year-old, who was just 32 when he donned the boss’ hat in the paddock, had to wait till his 12th birthday for his first-ever go-kart. “We had a garden and I wanted a go-kart to be able to whiz around it but my dad was more worried about his garden,” he jokes. But his wish was fulfilled when he turned 12 and six years later, Horner won a Renault scholarship in 1991 and was running in Formula Three by 1994 and in Formula 3000 in 1997. But he soon realized that he liked issuing orders than following them.

He may not have the flamboyance of Flavio Briatore or the calculating intelligence of Jean Todt. What he does have is a quick wit and a real understanding of how a team ought to function. Having been a driver himself, its perhaps a wee bit easier to empathize of what goes on in a driver’s head when adrenaline is shooting through your veins like a fast-spreading virus.

“To an extent, yes it helps,” he agrees. “Sometimes engineers forget that drivers are human. They’re just looking at data and thinking what should be done. Seb showed in the Canadian Grand Prix – ‘One of the best races I’ve seen in recent times’ – on Sunday that he’s human. He lead the whole race but made a small mistake on the last lap and lost. It happens. We move on,” he adds.

The cool and calm demeanour has managed to soothe ruffled feathers in the team when last year Vettel and Webber gunning for the same title ran each other a bit too close for comfort. It also helps to keep his girlfriend, who he says is already very patient, in a good mood from time to time.

For someone who works literally round the clock and all the time, free time is at a premium. Horner, who lacks the fanatical footie gene, enjoys the occasional time t home playing a bit of tennis or cricket, especially when England’s playing Australia and winning.

Even though India is touring England this summer, his attention is a few thousand kilometers away at the track in Greater Noida, which will host the first-ever Indian Grand Prix. The race, which has recently been shuffled around from October to December to back to October, is yet another example of Bernie Ecclestone conquering mystical, faraway lands to make himself and his friends all a little bit more rich.

“The picture looks fantastic. I think the Indian Grand Prix is a great addition to the calendar and from all the looks of it, it’s going to be a fantastic event,” he remarks.

“Though for us, we really hope we’ve had the title wrapped up by the time we fly in to New Delhi.”

Red Bull leads McLaren by 69 points.

Not everything that Ecclestone touches becomes gold and his handling of the Bahrain Grand Prix along with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile’s involvement, left much to be desired. The Formula One Teams Association put its united foot down and forced the FIA to make sure status quo was preserved.

Not known to give in to any wild outbursts, Horner’s reaction is expectantly sedate. “Every day in life is a lesson and we’ve learnt our lesson from the Bahrain situation,” he holds. “We’re a sporting team and we rely on the commercial rights holder and the FIA to make the calls and keep in mind what’s good for the sport and the team.”

If one were to ask the Hornettes, Horner wearing the blazer is good for the sport.

From the July 2011 issue of FHM India.