Red Bull’s Imola updates may be important for the season’s prospects but aren’t key to Christian Horner retaining the support of the team’s shareholders.

A report in Italy’s AutoSprint suggested Horner may lose the support of the Thai shareholding of Red Bull if the upgrade plans for Imola fail to noticeably transform the team’s competitiveness.

Christian Horner retains the full support of Red Bull shareholders

Speculation emerged in Italian media reports this week, suggesting that Horner may lose the support of the Thai shareholding in Red Bull GmbH, headed by Chalerm Yoovidhya, if the purported Red Bull upgrade package being introduced at Imola doesn’t noticeably transform the team’s championship prospects.

After the first quarter of the season, Max Verstappen has won one of the first six races – thanks to a stellar drive at the Japanese Grand Prix weekend. But McLaren has won the other five races, with four of them going to Oscar Piastri and the remaining race to Lando Norris.

With Verstappen occupying third place in the Drivers’ Championship and Red Bull the same in the Constructors’ Championship, any chance of catching McLaren would appear to hinge on Red Bull getting the most out of what is understood to be continuous evolution of its car at this stage of the season, rather than a major upgrade package.

This evolution started with undercar tweaks in Saudi Arabia, while revisions made to the front suspension and the rear of the RB21 in Miami – which didn’t require declaration due to not being of significant aerodynamic benefit – combined with a revised floor design that was utilised by Max Verstappen in what was a low-risk rollout which added a “few kilos of load”.

Further subtle tweaks, rather than a major upgrade, are expected to be made at Imola, with Yuki Tsunoda also set to be moved onto the same floor specification as Verstappen.

“It won’t be a sort of turnkey solution to unlock, if you like,” Paul Monaghan said in Miami of the team’s quest to fight the car’s imbalance through medium and slow-speed corners.

“It’s going to be incremental improvements on the car. We understand what’s happened, but actually affecting a cure is not that straightforward. It may never disappear from the car.

“Can we reduce the magnitude, and improve the lap time? Yes, there are a lot of clever people in Milton Keynes at work or are working hard to improve, and it will come.”

AutoSprint suggested that, if the upgrades to the RB21 don’t deliver, Horner could lose the support of Yoovidhya, with the Thai businessman representing the majority shareholders as the Yoovidhya family holds 51 percent of Red Bull GmbH – the other 49 percent is held by Mark Mateschitz, son of the late Dietrich.

The Italian magazine also suggested that former Alpine team boss Oli Oakes could be lined up as Horner’s replacement, with the 37-year-old having some parallels to Horner’s early career in his ownership of a junior formula team.

Oakes was announced by Alpine as having resigned from the team on Tuesday, with the Enstone-based squad making changes to its driver line-up by promoting Franco Colapinto into Jack Doohan’s race seat.

Some suggestions have been that Oakes was fired from Alpine, with Briatore – as Renault’s executive advisor – taking over his duties as team boss for the time being.

Another speculative scenario has been that Helmut Marko, the team’s 82-year-old advisor, and Horner’s fellow director, could take over from Horner in the role of team boss.

But sources close to the situation have dismissed the speculation surrounding Horner’s position as being without any basis in fact and, after two decades in charge, a short-term dip in relative competitiveness is understood to be of no concern to the shareholders.

Horner is contracted to Red Bull until the F1 2030 season and, earlier this year, said his commitment to the team remains “absolute”.

With Red Bull the only team aside from McLaren to win a Grand Prix this season, its current third-place position in the Constructors’ Championship does not represent a crisis for the shareholders.

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Having headed up Red Bull’s F1 team since its arrival in F1 in 2005, Horner has led the Milton Keynes-based squad to two separate periods of domination with over 120 Grand Prix wins en route to eight Drivers’ Championships and six Constructors’ Championships.

While the dominance of recent years has come to an end, the team’s recent dip in form is understood to be of no particular concern for the shareholders, particularly in what is a transitionary period for Red Bull.

Following the departure of long-time technical chief Adrian Newey, who took a short break from F1 before taking up a new challenge at Aston Martin, and the move of long-time sporting director Jonathan Wheatley to take a team principal role at Sauber/Audi, Red Bull has looked inwards to place its faith in existing talent to lead it into the new era incoming in F1 2026.

Along with Horner being a director of Red Bull Racing, the British businessman also heads up its engineering company division Red Bull Advanced Engineering, and the burgeoning Red Bull Powertrains which, partnering with Ford, will transform Red Bull Racing into a fully autonomous factory effort.

It’s not the first time rumours have suggested Horner has lost the support of Yoovidhya. Last year, following the internal investigation into allegations of Horner’s behaviour with a team employee, German media sources suggested Horner had lost the support of Yoovidhya and was set to be dropped as team boss.

This obviously did not happen, with sources at the time dismissing the speculation as “idle gossip”.

Aside from the pressures of retaining its usual operational and technical sharpness, as well as building up its forthcoming engine project, an apparent challenge for Horner will be proving to Verstappen that the Milton Keynes-based squad remains the best place for his future success.

Verstappen is under contract until the F1 2028 season, but has been continuously linked with big-money moves to rival teams such as Mercedes and Aston Martin.

Should Verstappen choose to move away from Red Bull at any point before the end of his contract, his departure would be a big blow for Red Bull but it’s understood this too would not affect Horner’s support with the shareholders.

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