Red Bull F1 pri🐽ncipal Christian Horner deserves “credit” for how he handled the “s**ttiest year of his life”, according to Guenther Steiner.

Controversy surrounded Horner before the 2024 season had even begun when a woman accused the 50-year-old Briton of inappropriate and controlling behaviour. Following an investigation, Red Bull’s board dismissed her compla🔯int and Horner was cle💮ared of any wrongdoing.

Horner then had to oversee a particularly difficult campaign for Red Bu🥂ll amid political infighting, development woes and performance issues on track.

While Red Bull slipped to third place in the constructors’ championship, largely down to168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Sergio Perez’s woeful displays, 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen was able to win a fourth successive world title.

And former Haas team principal Steiner believes Horner is deserving of praise for how he handled the difficult situat😼ions at Red Bull.

“I think he will rem🍸ember the ’24 year as [the] pretty s**ttiest year of his life, you know, with all the stuff which happened, and so we have to give to him credit,” Steiner told.

“He always stood up for it. 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 tea♐m.

“They co🅘uldn’t defend the Constructors’ World Championship, because they ha♈d only one car.”

“They were fight💫ing 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, th൲ey were faced with dealing with it, but obviously it was a bad year keeping the team together.”

‘Difficult’ to replace Newey

Red Bull have also been rocked by the departures of several key personnel ahead of the 2025 season, with legendary designer Adrian Newey joining Aston Martin and sporting director Jonathan Wheatley departing to become Sauber’s new team bos💃s.

Steiner says the challenge Red Bull face to find replacements cannot be unde🧸res𝓰timated.

“Obviously, they lost some people,” he added.

“They lost Adrian [Newey], they lost Jonathan [Wheatley], they’re🌄 going to lose the strategy engineer Will⛎ Courtenay [to McLaren], 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 s🍎ometimes having new blood in is good, but you need something – replacing an Adrian, it will be difficult.

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