Red Bull’s rocky start to the 2025 F1 season has led to a flurry of explanations from team boss Christian Horner, but Sky Sports F1’s Karun Chandhok isn’t buying all of them.
According to the former F1 driver, Horner’s repeated claims that Red Bull’s underwhelming RB21 struggles are caused by their outdated wind tunnel are little more than carefully crafted "PR spin."
Chandhok accused the Red Bull boss of using his political savvy to shift blame away from deeper team issues.
“Every time I listen to Christian Horner's ‘our wind tunnel is a relic of the Cold War’ thing… it's just PR spin,” insisted the Sky F1 commentator after last weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
“He is such a master politician. When we did the cost cap last year [he showed he was a] master of deflection, he just pivoted to some other story.”
As Chandhok cast doubt on Horner’s narrative, he rightly pointed out an important contradiction.
“I don't see Racing Bulls complaining about correlation for the wind tunnel [and] they use the same wind tunnel. I asked a couple of people at Racing Bulls, do you struggle with correlation [and there were like] 'nope'.”
For Chandhok, this indicated that the issues lie more with Red Bull Racing’s processes rather than their facilities.
“So it comes back to a Red Bull Racing issue. Sure, there is a correlation between their design in the factory and the wind tunnel, but that is a Red Bull issue rather than a ‘this is our relic of the Cold War where we design so many things.’”
Spinning Narratives and Managing Storms
Chandhok also pointed to Horner's defense tactics during controversial moments, such as Max Verstappen’s five-second penalty at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Horner arrived at the post-race media scrum armed with printed photos to argue Verstappen’s case – a move that Chandhok saw as classic political theater.
“You have to give Christian credit, he is very good at at least trying to spin it,” Chandhok said.
“When you arrived at the post-race thing with all of his printouts ready to go to argue the Max Verstappen thing. I'm sure it’s not an accident that on Instagram he posted a picture from high above showing Max ahead of Oscar.”
©RedBull
Chandhok added pointedly: “The fact that he has come off the brakes and is heading straight to the run-off area at a higher speed [is irrelevant], let's ignore that bit.”
Ultimately, Chandhok credited Horner’s political savvy for Red Bull’s ability to navigate difficult PR waters over the last two years.
“He manages to spin the narrative and get enough people to believe it that it becomes fact - and I give him credit for it.
“If you look at the last 24 months and the number of PR stories that they had to manage, he has weathered the storm and he has come out of it.”
Even as Red Bull works toward opening a brand-new, state-of-the-art wind tunnel at their Milton Keynes campus next year, Chandhok’s comments suggest that much of the current messaging from Horner is more about controlling perception than addressing deeper performance problems.
Read also: Marko reveals how track and setup elevated Red Bull in Jeddah
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