Horner reflects on Webber’s Red Bull exit and Ricciardo’s arrival

Christian Horner said he was saddened by the way Mark Webber left Red Bull, describing the manner of his departure as disrespectful to the team. “I was just sad when he left that he did it in the manner that he did,” Horner said. He added: “I thought it was disrespectful to the team as well.”

The split came after relations had already deteriorated: by 2013, the relationship between Webber and Red Bull was deeply fractured. At the Malaysian Grand Prix, the “Multi 21” episode had pushed the intense rivalry between Webber and Sebastian Vettel to breaking point. Webber had helped lay the foundations for the team’s success during Vettel’s championship years. Daniel Ricciardo then took over and led the garage at the start of the turbo-hybrid era.

Horner also recalled that Ricciardo quickly dispelled doubts once he had a car capable of winning. “Our hesitation was that we hadn’t seen him overtake too many cars, and then when he got in the Red Bull car he never stopped overtaking people,” he said. Horner also praised Ricciardo’s aggression under braking and said he won three Grands Prix in his first year with the team.

Ricciardo’s own reflections on leaving offer another perspective on that period. He admitted he wished he had stayed at Red Bull after departing at the end of the 2018 season. Speaking on the Beyond The Grid podcast, he confirmed the team had wanted him to stay and acknowledged that, in hindsight, he would have done things differently. At the time, however, he felt he was becoming too comfortable and wanted to try something else: he said the decision was not straightforward.

Ricciardo believed the move had probably cost him his best chance to fight for a world title. He said he wondered what might have happened had he stayed, while insisting he did not doubt his ability to keep competing with Max. He described the subsequent course of his career as more turbulent and called the choice a turning point. “Regret, curiosity or whatever you want to call it, the answer is yes,” he concluded of his wish to know what might have happened.