by Zak Brown said that Formula 1 was “healthier” without Christian Horner and that sport will be “in a better place” without the former director of the Red Bull team.
Horner was removed from his role with the F1 team in July after a turbulent final 18 months with the outfit. He was the subject of an investigation for inappropriate behavior last year, but was then eliminated after two separate surveys.
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On the track, Red Bull’s results have decreased considerably since mid-2010 and many high-level figures of the team left during this period.
Horner was replaced by Laurent Mekies, and Brown, the managing director of McLaren and Horner long -standing rival, said he felt more comfortable with the French in the Milton Keynes team.
McLaren and Red Bull – and Horner and Brown – have had many spots in recent years while the two teams have been fighting for the honors on the track.
Horner was dismissed as Director of the Red Bull team last month – PA / David Davies
“I am happy that Laurent is in the role in which he participates,” said Brown. “I like Laurent, it will be healthy, and maybe we can start focusing on competition on the track.
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“There will always be political aspects in sport, but I think it will be healthy with Laurent. I am a fan of Laurent, I have known him for a long time, and it will be good to go to his race.”
One of the main areas of dispute between the pair was on the violation of Red Bull on the cost ceiling for the 2021 season, when they won the pilot championship with Max Verstappen. The team was found guilty in 2022 of a “minor expenditure” of the budgetary constraint of $ 145 million in the FIA the previous year. They avoided any sporting penalty but were deducted from the development time of their allowance.
There was also a war of words between the pair on the alleged violations of technical regulations in the past year. One linked to McLaren’s “Flexi Award” which seemed to give them an advantage on the straight lines and another concerned the team that would have put water in their tires to help cool.
Brown said Red Bull’s actions sometimes crossed the line. “It went too far. There will always be politics in F1 – let’s try to close its flexi -wings and that kind of thing, but when you start to get into frivolous allegations, it’s going too far.
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“If I look from the stands from top to bottom now, I see us fighting in hard hard, but the line is not crossed, and this line has already been crossed,” added Brown.
“I think we will see a little change for the best. There is a higher level of confidence that now if we sit down and we have a conversation on a subject where we think there could be a certain confidentiality, and it is simply not a “ I will use it as a political weapon ”.
“We are going to be in a better place, a little more unified and a little more confident than even if we are fighting on the right track, we can have a conversation on what is good for sport. And that will not be manipulated for political reasons and out of context. ”
In an interview Telegraph Sport Earlier this year, Brown – whose rivalry with Horner was captured in the documentary series of Netflix Drive to Survive – said that the animosity on the screen was not manufactured for the benefit of viewers.
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“There is no love lost there. I don’t like the way he rides and there is no doubt that he feels the same thing for me. But I think it’s good for sport. You need different characters. You need these rivalries. Some are friendly and sporting rivalries. Some are a little more vicious. It’s always like that.”
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