Horner rubbishes talk that his Red Bull future is in doubt

On the back of a disappointing campaign for the former world champion outfit, there has been growing speculation about its future.

For as well as the possibility of Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz pulling his teams out of F1, there were rumours over the Austrian Grand Prix weekend that former Toro Rosso co-owner Gerhard Berger could be placed in a senior role.

Berger's high-profile attendance at races, which included sitting on the Toro Rosso pit wall in Austria, even prompted talk that he could be lined up to take charge at Red Bull if Horner moved on.

But in an interview published on the Red Bull website on Wednesday, Horner made it clear that there was no doubt he would be remaining in charge.

“Unfortunately in Formula 1 there are always rumours, and this is total rubbish,” said Horner about talk of him leaving. 

“I'm fully committed to Red Bull and I love what I do. We're working hard and my focus is trying to get the team back to where we were 18 months ago, that is where my focus is.”

British Grand Prix push

Horner said that efforts were ongoing to help turnaround Red Bull's campaign, although he said much of its hopes rested on what Renault could do to improve its engine.

“It's been a frustrating first half of the year, we haven't had the results that we certainly would have been hoping for coming into the year off the back end of last year,” he said.

“Everyone on the team is focused on trying to address that and improve the car. We have some stuff in the pipeline for Silverstone and beyond, which will hopefully help but obviously the majority of our issues we are unfortunately not in control of.”

Intention to stay

Horner also said that there was every indication from Mateschitz that if the team can make the improvements it needs then it would be willing to commit its future to F1.

“Dietrich Mateschitz made some comments over the weekend and it's exactly how he feels," he aid.

"He is frustrated and he is frustrated with the show. He is a fan as well and as a fan he has put a huge amount of investment into the sport over the last few years and he wants to see the sport go back to its glory days and see it have the same appeal and attraction that Formula 1 has previously enjoyed.

“We're working hard to try and help change things and from a team point of view, we want to be in a position where we can be competitive."