Christian Horner: "The Queen once quizzed me on Multi 21..."

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Christian Horner (1:20)

Hi, I'm Christian Horner, and you're listening to Beyond The Grid.

Tom Clarkson (1:41)

Hello, everyone, it's Tom Clarkson here, ready once more to take you Beyond The Grid. We've got a bit of a special show today with none other than Red Bull boss, Christian Horner. Now, in any meeting with Christian, there is never a shortage of things to talk about, but it just so happened that the day that we sat down to talk, a day that we'd penciled in our diaries for some time, was the very day that Daniel Ricciardo announced he'd be leaving Red Bull for Renault in 2019 So as you can imagine, there was a lot going on when I arrived at his house in rural Oxfordshire. Key members of the team needed to be informed of the change, a press release needed to be written, and he was already beginning to ponder his next move. And you won't believe the number of calls he took from driver managers just while I was there. It will be telling to reveal who they were, but let's just say that the second Red Bull seat in 2019 is much in demand. But Horner, he's an engaging character with some great stories as you're about to find out.

And keep an ear out too for an interruption from Christian's wife, Spice Girl Geri, later in the show.

Christian, welcome to Beyond The Grid, and thank you for having me. We're at home somewhere deep in the Oxfordshire countryside, very beautiful. So if we, there may be the odd dog barking in the background. What have you got here, just on the animal front?

Christian Horner (3:16)

There's all kinds. There's a couple of little West Highland terriers. There's one called Bernie, he's the bossy one, wandering around. Small? Small, quite aggressive.

Flavio, he's the fat one, chilling out, thinks he's cool.

Tom Clarkson (3:28)

Bernie and Flavio, yeah.

Christian Horner (3:29)

So there's Bernie and Flavio, and then there's a couple of other bigger ones, Hugo and Margot, cruising around.

Tom Clarkson (3:34)

Brilliant, well, it's a little haven, and we're in the summer break, of course. We're all trying to relax, although I think quite hard for you to do that right now, but we'll come on to that in a minute.

Christian, can we just start, let's start by talking about Red Bull Racing. You know, you've been here at the team since the beginning, 14 years. What has been your proudest achievement?

Christian Horner (3:56)

I think it's getting a group of people to work collectively together.

And I think as a team, and I think what we achieved between 2009, it was a big year for us, and 2013, winning four world championships, back-to-back world championships, double championships, constructors and drivers, was a huge, huge realization. And even really since then, the difficulties we've had with the regulation change to the engines, that we've managed to win races almost every single year.

Tom Clarkson (4:34)

But if there's one moment, Christian, that stands out, is it that first win in 2009?

Christian Horner (4:39)

I think there's a couple of moments that stand out. One is the first victory in 2009 in China, pouring in the rain.

Sebastian qualified on pole, and that wasn't stress-free because he had a leaking drive shaft boot where all the oil was coming out. He could only do one lap at a time. And then we had a wet race on race day. And so to win that championship, to finish first and second, was the realization of everything coming together. It was a very, very special moment for the team, for Sebastian, for everybody in the team, for Dietrich Mateschitz, and of course myself.