The hot topics of the new season of Drive to Survive
The release of the new season of Drive to Survive, as every year, causes a bit of a stir due to the previews leaked by Netflix on the eve of the docu-series’ streaming debut on the platform. One of the hot topics of the eight episodes of the upcoming edition – the release date is set for Friday, February 27 – is the firing of Christian Horner from Red Bull, which took place last summer at the peak of a long period of tension within the team’s garage that the English manager had helped create, shape, and make successful over the last 20 years.
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The firing of Christian Horner from Red Bull
The cameras of Formula 1: Drive to Survive – a series that many fans in the “purist” category do not like, but which certainly has the undeniable merit of having access to situations where journalists following the GP circus cannot take part – promise to tell some details and background of the English manager’s sensational farewell to the Milton Keynes team, with some previews also reporting Horner’s own opinion regarding the firing: according to the 52-year-old, pushing for a change at the top were the big boss of the Red Bull sports galaxy, Oliver Mintzlaff, assisted by Helmut Marko, who for a couple of years now has been the biggest detractor of the former team principal.
“Fault” of the Verstappen family?
Not everyone, however, is of the same opinion. The latest previews regarding the episode on Christian Horner’s firing speak of a George Russell who, questioned by the authors of the series Netflix, reportedly pointed the finger at his long-time “enemy” Max Verstappen and his entourage: “The Verstappens clearly have enormous power within the team, and they love to manipulate certain situations. For some reason they don’t particularly like Horner and have tried to get him out. I wonder if this isn’t some kind of mind game with Red Bull, aimed at putting pressure by making it clear that he will only stay in the team if Christian leaves”.
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The one between Max Verstappen and George Russell is a long-standing enmity, which flared up at the end of the 2024 season when, during qualifying for the Qatar GP, the Dutchman was punished by the FIA Race Direction with a grid penalty for impeding the Englishman, who however was accused of having in a sense “simulated” the impeding, given that in reality he was not on a flying lap and therefore did not have a real right of way on the track. The words of the Mercedes driver, spoken however “in the heat of the moment” close to the firing of the Red Bull boss, are nonetheless in contrast with the interpretation of the facts given by the person concerned, Christian Horner, who attributed the responsibility for his departure to Mintzlaff and Marko – who also left the team at the end of last season – explicitly exonerating Max and Jos Verstappen.
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