Red Bull chief Helmut Marko has finally revealed why they decided to let Christian Horner go midseason.
The Milton Keynes-based squad shocked the world when they removed their CEO and Team Principal after 20 years in charge of the team earlier this month.
The announcement came just days after two disappointing races for the team in Austria and Britain. The team is now led by former Racing Bulls team principal Laurent Mekies.
Horner's sacking followed an ongoing power struggle between the 51-year-old and Marko, with the duo's relationship souring behind the scenes.
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|Helmut Marko has finally revealed why Christian Horner was sacked
Marko has been surprisingly quiet since the sacking, but he has now opened up on the reason behind the departure while speaking at the Belgian Grand Prix.
“The decision was made by Oliver Mintzlaff (managing director of Red Bull GmbH)," he said.
“We informed Christian Horner of this on Tuesday in London after the Silverstone race, at the same time officially thanking him for these 20 years and for these eight World Championship titles.
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“This was the result of various factors, but above all, the performance wasn’t quite as good as it could have been.
“Fortunately, we were able to bring Laurent Mekies into the family. His responsibilities will be significantly reduced, with the main focus being on racing.”
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|Helmut Marko has revealed that Oliver Mintzlaff decided to remove Christian Horner
Red Bull has had a turbulent couple of seasons, despite Max Verstappen's success, with a number of key members leaving the team.
Most notably, the team lost arguably the greatest designer in the history of F1 in Adrian Newey. They also lost their sporting director, Jonathan Wheatley, who went to Sauber.
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Horner was enveloped in controversy last year after a former female employee accused him of “inappropriate behaviour”.
After an investigation, he was cleared of any wrongdoing, and a subsequent appeal was also dismissed, despite all the controversy surrounding the 51-year-old. It is claimed the controversy had nothing to do with his dismissal.
Red Bull have performed well since Horner’s departure, with Verstappen winning the sprint race at Spa on Saturday.
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|Laurent Mekies has now taken over as the team principal of Red Bull
With the rumours surrounding Verstappen's contract now seeming to die down, the team will be looking to enter a period of calm heading into the summer break, where they will have time to reset before restarting their championship charge.
If Verstappen is to win his fifth consecutive world championship, he will have a lot of work to do in the second half of the season.
He starts the Belgium Grand Prix from fourth position on Sunday and will be aiming to take some points out of the McLaren duo in front of him in the championship.