Red Bull: Christian Horner formally leaves with £52m pay-off

Red Bull’s long-time design leader, Adrian Newey – regarded as the greatest designer in F1 history – left the team in April last year.

He was upset by the allegations, as well as the way he perceived his importance had been diminished by Horner and others at the team.

Long-time sporting director Jonathan Wheatley followed in July. He is now team principal of Sauber for their transition into Audi’s factory team next year.

Will Courtenay, head of strategy who had been at Red Bull since it was Jaguar in the early 2000s, resigned in July. He will join McLaren as sporting director as soon as a contractual impasse can be resolved.

As Red Bull’s form declined through the first half of this season, relations between Horner and the main shareholders worsened.

Horner lost the support of the main shareholder, Chalerm Yoovidhya, who saved him when the allegations first became public, and Oliver Mintzlaff, Red Bull’s chief executive officer corporate projects and investments, decided to sack him after a poor performance by the team at the British Grand Prix.

In a statement on Monday Mintzlaff thanked Horner for his “exceptional work”.

“With his tireless commitment, experience, expertise and innovative thinking, he has been instrumental in establishing Red Bull Racing as one of the most successful and attractive teams in Formula 1,” Mintzlaff said.

Horner said in the same statement that leading Red Bull had been “an honour and a privilege”.

He added: “My biggest satisfaction has been assembling and leading the most amazing group of talented and driven individuals and seeing them flourish as a subsidiary of an energy drinks company and seeing them take on and beat some of the biggest automotive brands in the world.”