Red Bull F1 principal 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 behaviouܫr. Following an investigation, Red Bull’s board dismissed her complaint and Horner was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Horner then had to oversee a particularl👍y dif🎀ficult campaign for Red Bull 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 situations at Red Bull.

“I think he will remember 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 ﷺgive 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, bu🤪t then going into it, it’s pretty clear, they had that one driver in the team.

“They cou🌸ldn’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 ജthat one.

“In the past he was a good driver, he won ra𝓰ces, 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🍒.”

‘Difficult’ to replace Newey

Red Bull have also been rocked by the departures of several keyꦰ 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 boss.

Steiner says the challenge Red Bull face to find replacements cannot be underes꧋timated.

“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 g🥂ot a good second line, these people are there a long time.

“They know the ins and outs, an🔴d some🉐times having new blood in is good, but you need something – replacing an Adrian, it will be difficult.

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