For the last few weeks, the biggest story in F1 was 'will Max Verstappen exit the team he's been with since he was a teenager?' But waiting in the wings was a different Red Bull exit of a massive magnitude.
Red Bull Racing announced Wednesday that Team Principal Christian Horner is out at the team that he has led since 2005. Horner oversaw eight drivers' titles (four apiece from Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel) and six constructors' titles during his tenure.
According to Sky Sports, it was an emotional day for the team which will have a new look at the top in a few weeks in Belgium, but will it be unrecognizable come 2026?
Why did Red Bull axe Horner now?
Red Bull hasn't specifically cited why it made the move now and not after the season. But there are certainly reasons that one can speculate on.
Red Bull sits a distant fourth in the constructors' standings at the midway point of the season, with 165 of its 172 points coming via Verstappen.
Despite Verstappen's incredible efforts (including a pole this weekend at Silverstone), the car's performance has taken a continuous dive since the midway point of last season. Verstappen was able to capture the 2024 drivers' title, but McLaren ended up taking the team championship.
And amidst Verstappen's less dominant performances (he's still won twice this year, mind you), the second seat at Red Bull has become an unmitigated disaster.
Liam Lawson joined a long line of second seat Red Bull drivers who couldn't get the job done, but Horner and company gave up on him after two weekends in favor of Yuki Tsunoda.
It hasn't gotten any better: Tsunoda has scored just seven points in 10 weekends with the team, and hasn't put a single point on the board since Imola in mid-May.
Most bizarre about the hasty firing was Red Bull could, and should, have cut ties with Horner last season when he was accused of inappropriate behavior toward a female colleague.
Could this keep Verstappen at Red Bull?
Red Bull will now move forward with Laurent Mekies, who was the team principal at Red Bull's sister team, Racing Bulls. Mekies worked at Ferrari before his short tenure at the team that currently oversees Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar.
The big question that everyone is left to wonder now is: does this help the team retain Verstappen? Or does it mean he's already on his way out?
To be clear, no one knows how much Verstappen's impending decision played into Horner's exit, but it certainly is interesting to remove your longtime leader midway through the year if there wasn't something major to spur it.
One thing is clear: Verstappen (and more openly, Verstappen's dad Jos) have not seemed to get along with Horner over the past few years. If we're to speculate, removing Horner now and letting a new team vision play out shows a disgruntled star that they want to put someone new in place to accomplish more success.
Although it is doubtful that Mekies will be able to turn anything around this year, he can start to instill a new playbook in 2025 and push for certain changes and focuses for new regulations coming in 2026.
Does Horner's exit signal Red Bull lost Verstappen?
The other line of thinking here (again, purely on speculation) is that Horner may have been sacked as a result of him being responsible for the poor performance, along with Verstappen being prepared to leave.
It is an open secret at this point that Mercedes is courting the Dutch driver to jump from what they're painting as a sinking ship to a team that is putting everything into returning to dominance in 2026.
Red Bull will almost certainly lose the teams title once again and is in line for its first drivers' title loss since 2020 come December. If the team then loses Verstappen, the only reason why it has any championships to speak of since Vettel left, you could see why this would be the moment to move on from Horner, even if the team is still somewhat competitive.
Where would Red Bull be this season without Verstappen? You could make a serious argument that they would be toward the bottom of the standings, with seven points coming from their second seat combined. Verstappen put up 10 points this past weekend alone in a race where he spun out.
Now if Verstappen exits, their lineup next season is a serious question mark, another wake-up call that might've forced team leadership's hand.
They have two drivers who have struggled in Red Bull already (Lawson, Tsunoda) and one who is an unknown quantity at that level (Hadjar).
From there, they have to press their luck with an F2 driver (17-year-old Arvin Lindblad?), the free agent market (Bottas?) and/or hope whoever gets axed from Mercedes wants to come their way.
It's looking murky for Red Bull already. All of the power is in Verstappen's hands to really throw this team into disarray.