Red Bull's Christian Horner has 'sympathy for Mattia Binotto' after Ferrari sacking

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says he felt Mattia Binotto did a good job at Ferrari last season and didn't think he should have lost his job.

Of course, it is important to remember that Horner and Red Bull are direct rivals of Ferrari, so it would be in their best interest for the Scuderia to struggle as much as possible.

With that being said, Horner claims that Ferrari took a big leap forward in 2022, despite hardly challenging Red Bull at all for the entire Formula 1 season.

"It has been interesting to watch the movement [of the team principals]," said Horner.

"I have sympathy for Mattia because, ultimately, he'd done a good job. Last year, that was a big step forward from where they had been, so that must be tough for him after such long service that he had given to Ferrari."

What will Vasseur do?

Horner also took the opportunity to take a cheeky dig at Binotto's replacement Fred Vasseur, who was often at loggerheads with the heads of top teams while in charge of Sauber.

"Fred, it'll be interesting to see if he's still arguing about the same points that he was for Sauber in upcoming meetings," said Horner.

"But again, he's a very capable guy. So yeah, it'll be very interesting. I'm sure they're all very capable people. So we'll get to see what the dynamics are at the next F1 Commission meeting."

Horner is adamant that Red Bull's focus is solely on putting out the fastest car possible, regardless of what is happening at their rivals.

"I think [what's next is] to keep delivering, to keep developing the team and the business here," he said.

"I think the next massive challenge for us is the powertrains. I mean, we've got a start-up engine company taking on Ferrari, Mercedes, Alpine, VW Group… And so that is a massive