Horner brands Webber's 2013 Red Bull exit 'disrespectful' while hailing Ricciardo as a revelation

Christian Horner has described Mark Webber’s 2013 departure from Red Bull Racing as ‘disrespectful’, revealing that the Australian announced his retirement to the press before informing the team principal directly. Speaking in a recent 60 Minutes Australia interview, Horner also praised Daniel Ricciardo’s immediate impact after stepping up from Toro Rosso the following year.

The relationship between Webber and Red Bull had already been severely strained by the ‘Multi 21’ controversy at the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix, where Sebastian Vettel ignored team orders to overtake his team-mate. Months later, on the Thursday before the British Grand Prix, Webber publicly announced his end-of-season retirement and his move to Porsche without first speaking to Horner face-to-face.

‘I was just sad when he left that he did it in the manner that he did,’ Horner said. ‘I thought it was disrespectful to the team as well.’ He acknowledged that more than a decade on, the two men are on good terms, but the manner of that exit has clearly remained a defining memory.

Webber’s departure created the opening for Ricciardo, who arrived at Red Bull for the 2014 season. Horner admitted there had been genuine uncertainty within the team about whether Ricciardo possessed the racecraft to compete at the front of the grid, given that his time at Toro Rosso had offered limited evidence of his overtaking ability.

Those doubts did not survive long. ‘Our hesitation was that we hadn’t seen him overtake too many cars, and then when he got in the Red Bull car he never stopped overtaking people,’ Horner recalled. ‘He became an animal on the brakes and won three Grand Prix in his first year with us.’

Ricciardo’s three victories in 2014 came at the Canadian Grand Prix, followed by wins in Hungary and Belgium — a return that immediately established him as one of the grid’s most dangerous racers and silenced any lingering questions about his promotion.