Guenther Steiner said Christian Horner had the “s***tiest year of his life” in 2024, with an off-track investigation combining with a difficult season on it for Red Bull.

Horner was cleared in an investigation by Red Bull Racing’s parent company, Red Bull GmbH, overseen by an independent lawyer after allegations of inappropriate behaviour were brought by a team employee, with an appeal subsequently being dismissed six months later.

Steiner: ‘Underestimated’ how tough 2024 was for Christian Horner

News of this investigation came before the start of the 2024 season, and while Horner was eventually cleared of wrongdoing, former Haas team principal Steiner explained that, combined with a competitive season, and several senior off-track departures for Red Bull, will have made last year a particularly difficult one for the Red Bull team boss.

Steiner praised how he “stood up” to what happened around him, however, with 2025 set to look even more competitive on track between the top teams.

When asked by the Dutch edition of GPFans how difficult it will have been for Horner to keep Red Bull together after a difficult 2024 season, Steiner replied: “I think you underestimated how hard the year was for Christian.

“I think he will remember the ’24 years as [the] pretty s***tiest year of his life, you know, with all the stuff which happened, and so we have to give to him credit.

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“He always stood up for it. You know, we don’t even talk about the beginning of the year, his private stuff, but then going into it, it’s pretty clear, they had that one driver in the team.

“They couldn’t defend the Constructors’ World Championship, because they had only one car.

“They were fighting a McLaren with two very good drivers. And I’m not saying that Checo [Perez] is not a good driver, but he wasn’t last year. We have to say that one.

“In the past he was a good driver, he won races, but last year, he underperformed.

“In the end, they were faced with dealing with it, but obviously it was a bad year keeping the team together.

“Obviously, they lost some people. They lost Adrian [Newey], they lost Jonathan [Wheatley], they’re going to lose the strategy engineer Will Courtenay, which are all very good people.

“And as much as Red Bull has got a good second line, these people are there a long time. They know the ins and outs, and sometimes having new blood in is good, but you need something – replacing an Adrian, it will be difficult.

“But only time will tell what Christian can make out of it, but I think it is not getting any easier for him in the moment.”

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