Former Red Bull boss Christian Horner has revealed he received a call from the company’s CEO, Oliver Mintzlaff, after Max Verstappen’s victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia earlier this month, as well as from other shareholders.

The win was Verstappen and Red Bull’s first of the season, and it was a very significant one for the team.

2026 is the first season that Red Bull have competed in F1 with their own power unit, and the Bahrain GP victory marked their first win as a power unit manufacturer on just their 16th attempt.

Having left the team in mid-2025, Horner has not been around for some time now, but he was one of the key personnel involved in Red Bull’s ambitious powertrains project, which was launched under his leadership in 2021.

When Verstappen took the chequered flag, that was a fact not forgotten by Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle: “Christian Horner got a very good group of people together to start the Red Bull Powertrains project. That’s a hugely impressive victory for the team – power unit and chassis – from Milton Keynes.”

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Christian Horner reveals talks with Red Bull CEO

At the time, Horner took to his social media to congratulate the team on their landmark victory, but it turns out the former Red Bull boss has also been on the receiving end of some positive messaging himself.

Speaking at the Autosport Business Exchange conference in New York, Horner revealed that he had held talks with some of Red Bull’s shareholders who reached out to thank him after the victory, as well as a call with CEO MIntzlaff.

“It was an appreciated gesture, seeing that engine and knowing what went into it, you know, the sweat and tears along the way,” Horner explained, via motorsport.com.

“For all the men and women involved, it was an incredible, incredible achievement. And their 16th attempt to win a grand prix, which is very hard at the best of times.

“I was very grateful to both the shareholders who reached out and [Red Bull CEO] Oliver Mintzlaff, who reached out to thank me as well. It was quite a different call than I had from him 15 months earlier.”

Red Bull Powertrains ‘best’ in F1

Red Bull’s first victory as a power unit manufacturer was quickly followed up by their second at the Singapore Grand Prix last time out, where Max Verstappen was once again on the top step come the podium celebrations.

With upgrades to the car, perhaps the full potential of the power unit is finally being realised, with the FIA having deemed Red Bull to have the best internal combustion engine (ICE) in the sport in their first two ADUO rulings earlier this season.

As the benchmark in the sport, it does mean that no upgrades to their power unit are on the horizon, but for now, they may not need them.

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Daniel Ricciardo used to rank the US Grand Prix among his favourites on the calendar and, while he’s not on the grid anymore, he’s still making the most of the circus being in town.

The popular Australian F1 driver turned Ford ambassador was out in Arizona over the weekend for the third Raptor Rally, where Ford Raptor owners came from far and wide to congregate in Lake Havasu.

With that event all wrapped up, Ricciardo and co. packed up and hit the road for a road trip over to Austin, Texas to jump in with the USGP festivities.

Probably a fairly short hop, right? Not so much. Lake Havasu to Austin will actually put something like 1,200 miles on your odometer – in other words, nearly five times the distance between the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia and the Singapore Grand Prix, which Valtteri Bottas cycled earlier this month.

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Ricciardo ‘can’t wait’ for Austin road trip

Ricciardo’s lifestyle brand Enchante posted a video of the Aussie climbing into his Ford truck after the weekend’s event, captioned: “Raptor’s packed. First stop, the Nellie E Saloon. The long road to Austin starts now.”

The Enchante founder wrote in a note: “Last night we kicked things off in Lake Havasu at the Ford Raptor Rally, and in a couple of days we’re taking the long way to Austin. And I mean the lonnnng way. Desert, backroads, swimming holes, all of it. Not gonna lie, I can’t wait.”

Enchante and Ford Racing are hosting a pop-up event in Austin over the course of the race weekend, but it’s unclear whether or not the former Red Bull and McLaren driver will attend the track itself.

He and his company were in attendance in Austin last year but, just a year after he was pushed out of the door and his racing career ended, he chose not to actually rock up at COTA at any point.

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Lewis Hamilton‘s brother Nicolas has opened up on their relationship and how he has handled the move to Ferrari.

Nicolas is a half-brother to Lewis through their father Anthony’s side.

Anthony divorced from Lewis’s mother Carmen Larbalestier when the seven-time world champion was two and once he remarried to Linda they had Nicolas in 1992.

Now 34-years-old, Nicolas competes in the British Touring Cars (BTCC) despite suffering from a cerebral palsy that affects how he moves his muscles in the lower half of his body.

Despite his close connections with Lewis, Nicolas’s motorsport career is purposely funded outside of any support from the Ferrari star.

The two remain close, and Nicolas revealed the nature of their relationship, including his assessment on the 41-year-old’s move to Ferrari.

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Nicolas opens up on Lewis relationship

He told The Times: “Me and Lewis, we’re very close. We don’t always tell each other our true feelings, because we feel like we do it through how we show each other our love and our passion towards each other.

“I know it’s [his career] not easy — he makes it look easy sometimes, but he works so hard. He’s gone through some really difficult, tough and dark times, like you would have seen in his first year at Ferrari last year. He’s picked himself up and he’s come out of it and he’s doing well.

“At the end of the day I don’t care whether he’s winning or whether he’s last, I want him to be happy. At the moment he seems happy and so I just want him to keep doing what he’s doing.”

Demonstrating how close the pair are, Lewis invited his brother to Ferrari’s Fiorano test track during the summer to give him the taste on an F1 experience with a three-seater F1 car equipped with a V10 engine.

Nicolas revealed the pride he has for Lewis, saying: “I’ve been a part of Lewis’s career my whole life [but] when you’re in the car, you’re alone, and I got to witness what it was like to be him for five laps or whatever it was.

“I stepped into the car and as I sat down, I literally sat down directly behind his helmet. What really hit me deeply was my pride for him, to really see where we were in that moment. We were in Fiorano, in a Ferrari Formula 1 car, Lewis driving me around.

“We’ve come a long way from the days of just playing games in my bedroom at home.

“He’s pretty much the Ayrton Senna of our generation and even though he’s my brother I’m such a fan of him as a driver. I’ve always felt that as a brother, I’ve always been in the car with him.

“Whatever’s going on I feel like my spirit, my soul has always been with him. So he’s not alone in the car, and this time, physically, I was there with him. It was a day I’ll never forget.”

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