McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has stated that Christian Horner’s exit from Red Bull Racing is a “change for the better” for Formula One. Brown stressed that the sport is now “healthier” with Laurent Mekies, who replaced Horner after his exit.

Brown and Horner’s rivalry was a popular one in F1, as they often disagreed on matters such as the topic of Red Bull’s sister team, Racing Bulls, which Brown alleged was dangerous because it gave Red Bull the liberty of manipulating competition through the ownership of a second team.

Their rivalry reportedly peaked last year when Horner reported McLaren’s alleged flexi rear wing to the FIA, which flexed under pressure at high speeds, creating a semi-DRS effect. Despite the wing being legal, McLaren was asked to change it, reportedly due to its controversial design.

The reason for Horner’s sudden ousting has not been revealed yet, but it has been reportedly linked to the team’s dwindling performance in the last 12-18 months. Horner also faced an internal investigation at the start of the 2024 season after a female colleague reported him for inappropriate behavior, although he was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Mekies took on the charge at Red Bull with immediate effect, with the Belgian Grand Prix being his first race. Speaking to The Telegraph about the changes at Red Bull, Brown seemed pleased with Mekies. He said:

“I’m happy Laurent’s in the role he is in. I like Laurent, that’ll be healthy, and maybe we can get back to focusing on competition on the track.

“There’s always going to be some political aspects to the sport, but I think it is going to be healthier with Laurent. I’m a fan of Laurent, I have known him for a long time, and it’ll be good to go racing against him.”

Addressing the flexi wings saga from 2024, when McLaren was beating Red Bull on the track, Brown said:

“It went too far. There’s always going to be politicking in F1 – let’s try and shut down their flexi-wings and that stuff, but when you start getting into frivolous allegations, that’s just going too far.

“If I look up and down pit lane now, I see us fighting each other hard politically, but the line is not being crossed, and that line got crossed before.”

Brown predicts that things will turn out to be better in the sport in Horner’s absence. He added:

“I think that we’ll see a little bit of a change for the better. There’s a higher level of trust that now if we sit down and have a conversation on a topic where we think there could be some confidentiality, and it’s just not an automatic ‘I’m going to use that as a political weapon’.

“We’re going to be in a better place, a little bit more unified, and a little bit more trusting that while we’re fighting on track, we can have a conversation about what’s good for the sport off it. And that won’t get manipulated for political reasons and taken out of context.”