Christian Horner pay rise revealed in Red Bull F1 accounts before axe and £80m payoff

Christian Horner received a modest pay rise in his final full year as Red Bull Racing team principal and chief executive, it has been revealed. The news comes after the 51-year-old officially left the outfit this week, more than two months after being relieved of his duties, after striking an exit package believed to be worth around £80million.

Horner was in charge of the team for 20 years but was replaced in his role by Laurent Mekies in July, after the British Grand Prix. He had a contract until 2030 and so was due a bumper payout which appears to have been significantly inflated from his base salary alone.

The latest Red Bull team accounts show Horner, as the highest paid director of Red Bull Racing Ltd, received £7,046,000 in the year ending December 31, 2024. That is a small rise compared to the previous 12-month period where he is listed as having received a flat £7m.

The accounts also showed Red Bull recorded a profit for the year, though only a small one: £1.681m. But that is the trend with the team, which has been profitable in each of the last five years but the largest being in 2022, when the company made £2.06m – from a turnover of £278.03m.

Those figures show the likes of F1 minnows Haas and Alpine have made more profit than Red Bull since 2020, though many other teams including the likes of McLaren and Aston Martin have made net losses. Mercedes are by far the most profitable F1 team, having made £376.38m over those five years.

Red Bull's turnover has continued to rise with £314.409m received in 2024. While commercial performance and sponsorship brought in the lion's share of this figure, the team would have also received a significant amount of prize money, around £65m, having dominated the constructors' championship in 2023.

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Red Bull said it had "prioritised securing long-term financial sustainability" by "focusing on longer, larger partnerships with established businesses that align with Oracle Red Bull Racing's ethos and culture".

That title sponsorship with technology firm Oracle is the most significant of their sponsorship deals, believed to be worth around £70m per year to the team. In 2024, Red Bull also added title sponsorships for sister team Racing Bulls, striking deals with finance firms Visa and CashApp.

Red Bull said it also expanded some of its existing partnerships including what it described as "a record-breaking apparel partnership for F1 for both size and duration" with Manchester-based sportswear manufacturer Castore. The team also secured long-term and "significant commitments from AT&T, Tag Heuer and Exxon".

Horner played a significant role in striking deals with many of the team's highest-paying sponsors, which is likely to also be reflected in the size of his payout. Some reports have suggested he may have been due an even higher fee, but may have compromised in return for a shorter period of gardening leave allowing him to return to F1 with another team as early as next year.