Christian Horner wanted to leave a sordid season behind him. Boos mar early days for F1 executive

Any hope Christian Horner had of leaving last year’s sordid season behind him was dashed at Formula 1’s splashy London car launch last month when the Red Bull Racing leader was booed.

The vitriol aimed at Horner and four-time reigning champion Max Verstappen was so bad that governing body FIA was forced to acknowledge it.

“It was disappointing to hear the crowd’s tribalist reaction," the FIA said. “Max and Christian have both contributed greatly to the sport we love. In the season ahead we should not lose sight of that.”

Horner appears to be F1’s villain as the season begins this weekend at the Australian Grand Prix. The latest version of “Drive to Survive” debuted one week before Friday's season-opening practice and the humiliating position Horner was in just one year ago, when he was under investigation by Red Bull following employee allegations of inappropriate behavior, is only briefly covered. The topic is nonetheless back in front of fans.

The episode correctly notes that Horner has twice been cleared of any wrongdoing but largely skims over the breathtaking drama surrounding Horner’s fate in a power battle at Red Bull. The dysfunction led to Red Bull losing a third consecutive constructor's championship even as Verstappen marched on to win another driver's title.

The first episode's narrative is that Horner and McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown hate each other. McLaren won last year's constructor title and sees Lando Norris as a threat to dethrone Verstappen. The rivalry is real and isn’t going away.

The Associated Press conducted a series of interviews with Horner near the end of last season and ahead of the 2025 campaign. He was a man eager to move on from the allegations and determined to preserve his grasp on Red Bull.

Horner was careful in discussing details since the former employee is still pressing the allegations.

Horner said he is confused about how quickly he came crashing down from the top of global motorsports, though he painted Red Bull itself as something of an renegade outsider.

“Because we're different. We are not an OEM. We are a subsidiary of an energy drink company that is beating Mercedes-Benz and it isn't sitting comfortably,” Horner said. “We're not in anyone's pocket. We do our own thing. We are a bit of maverick in that regard. And I think that is recognized outside the paddock: We are the most popular team. We're bigger than Arsenal, we're bigger than teams like the Dallas Cowboys. But inside the paddock, it's very easy for people to want to have a go at you or diminish what you're doing.”

How does he take the scrutiny?

“My wife always said to me a pat on the back is six inches from a kick up the (expletive),” Horner said. “I love the people and the competition and when the lights go out, that's the freedom. And you put up with the other (expletive). It's when you lose the passion for it all that you really have a problem”

The start of last season was horrific for Horner with the allegations against him sparking untold rumors. His wife is Geri Halliwell — Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls — and a bigger celebrity than Horner. She flew to last season’s season-opening race as the tabloids chased reaction and responded with an affectionate pre-race walk for all the cameras to capture.

For what his family suffered, Horner says he is shattered. The employee allegation happened as he was in the process of adopting Halliwell's 18-year-old daughter, and he said the couple had to send the teen to Switzerland to escape the paparazzi.

“I trusted in me and myself and the process and with the support of my amazing family and amazing wife and some great people, some outstanding team members,” Horner said. “I just let the process play out.”

Many wonder what sparked the allegations and whether they were part of a power battle between Horner and Verstappen’s father, Jos, who openly pushed for Horner’s ouster at Red Bull. Jos Verstappen has a feared reputation as father of the four-time champion and wields outsized power even without a formal job with the team.

Attempts by AP to give Jos Verstappen the opportunity to comment for this story were met with noncommittal communications.

Horner would prefer more attention on how well Max Verstappen did in winning nine races, a fourth consecutive title with a teammate who didn’t carry his weight, and the stoppage of Red Bull employees quitting left and right. The most devastating departure was Adrian Newey, the top car designer who built Red Bull’s once-unbeatable car.

Still, Horner told AP there was far more internal support than fracturing among the executives even as Jos Verstappen was actively calling Horner a distraction who would tear Red Bull apart.

“What really touched me was that I had all the senior members of the team coming to my office and individually gave me letters of support," Horner said. “Sometimes it looked like the world was against us, but internally we remained strong.”

Horner spent the last four years as an F1 star, certainly on Netflix, in part because of Red Bull's success on track and his savviness for the cameras. Now he is a target, the team principal whom all the others wouldn’t mind watching fall.

Horner asked AP about the budding friendship between Brown and Mercedes head Toto Wolff. Horner said he finds it a convenient relationship and wondered if the two have buddied up to plot against him.

“Now Zak and Toto have become best friends, and they clearly are working together against me," Horner said. “I don't see that friendship ending well.”

The AP asked both Wolff and Brown independently about Horner’s claim.

Wolff was Horner’s nemesis before Brown. He was the one who poked Horner every chance, but now he lets Brown be the instigator. “He has totally lost the plot,” Wolff says of Horner’s observation.

Brown at first justified how long he has been friends with Wolff, then noted with satisfaction the effect he is having on Horner.

“It doesn’t hurt that he doesn’t like Toto and I being friends,” Brown told AP. “We’d all like to see him knocked down.”

Horner made an offseason lineup change, replacing Sergio Perez with Liam Lawson as Red Bull tries to reclaim the championship sweep. Despite twice being cleared in investigations into his behavior, the battle continues with an early 2026 hearing before a United Kingdom employment tribunal. The employee has been suspended by Red Bull for over a year.

Horner clearly doesn't want to anger the Verstappens — father or son — and wants credit given for the job Max Verstappen has done since his first championship in 2021. Horner said he wants to win back the “DTS” audience that has turned on him, and knows the series' new storyline in which he and Brown are the enemies of the sport will continue.

How’s that for turning a corner? So far, not what he wanted.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands in action during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands prepares for the pit during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner talks during a press conference during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Geri Horner arrives to attend the annual Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey in London, Monday, March 10, 2025.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, right, stands in the pit lane during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner walks to the track during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most American presidents aspire to the kind of greatness that prompts future generations to name important things in their honor.

Donald Trump isn't leaving it to future generations.

As the first year of his second term wraps up, his administration and allies have put the president’s name on the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center performing arts venue and a new class of battleships.

That’s on top of the “Trump Accounts” for tax-deferred investments, the TrumpRx government website soon to offer direct sales of prescription drugs, the “Trump Gold Card” visa that costs at least $1 million and the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a transit corridor included in a deal his administration brokered between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

On Friday, he plans to attend a ceremony in Florida where local officials will dedicate a 4-mile (6-kilometer) stretch of road from the airport to his Mar-a-Lago estate as President Donald J. Trump Boulevard.

It’s unprecedented for a sitting president to embrace tributes of that number and scale, especially those proffered by members of his administration. And while past sitting presidents have typically been honored by local officials naming schools and roads after them, it's exceedingly rare for airports, federal buildings, warships or other government assets to be named for someone still in power.

“At no previous time in history have we consistently named things after a president who was still in office,” said Jeffrey Engel, the David Gergen Director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “One might even extend that to say a president who is still alive. Those kind of memorializations are supposed to be just that — memorials to the passing hero.”

White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said the TrumpRx website linked to the president's deals to lower the price of some prescription drugs, along with “overdue upgrades of national landmarks, lasting peace deals, and wealth-creation accounts for children are historic initiatives that would not have been possible without President Trump’s bold leadership.”

"The Administration’s focus isn’t on smart branding, but delivering on President Trump’s goal of Making America Great Again," Huston said.

The White House pointed out that the nation's capital was named after President George Washington and the Hoover Dam was named after President Herbert Hoover while each was serving as president.

For Trump, it’s a continuation of the way he first etched his place onto the American consciousness, becoming famous as a real estate developer who affixed his name in big gold letters on luxury buildings and hotels, a casino and assorted products like neckties, wine and steaks.

As he ran for president in 2024, the candidate rolled out Trump-branded business ventures for watches, fragrances, Bibles and sneakers — including golden high tops priced at $799. After taking office again last year, Trump's businesses launched a Trump Mobile phone company, with plans to unveil a gold-colored smartphone and a cryptocurrency memecoin named $TRUMP.

That’s not to be confused with plans for a physical, government-issued Trump coin that U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said the U.S. Mint is planning.

Trump has also reportedly told the owners of Washington’s NFL team that he would like his name on the Commanders’ new stadium. The team’s ownership group, which has the naming rights, has not commented on the idea. But a White House spokeswoman in November called the proposed name “beautiful” and said Trump made the rebuilding of the stadium possible.

The addition of Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center in December so outraged independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont that he introduced legislation this week to ban the naming or renaming of any federal building or land after a sitting president — a ban that would retroactively apply to the Kennedy Center and Institute of Peace.

“I think he is a narcissist who likes to see his name up there. If he owns a hotel, that’s his business,” Sanders said in an interview. “But he doesn’t own federal buildings.”

Sanders likened Trump's penchant for putting his name on government buildings and more to the actions of authoritarian leaders throughout history.

“If the American people want to name buildings after a president who is deceased, that’s fine. That’s what we do,” Sanders said. “But to use federal buildings to enhance your own position very much sounds like the ‘Great Leader’ mentality of North Korea, and that is not something that I think the American people want.”

Although some of the naming has been suggested by others, the president has made clear he’s pleased with the tributes.

Three months after the announcement of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a name the White House says was proposed by Armenian officials, the president gushed about it at a White House dinner.

“It’s such a beautiful thing, they named it after me. I really appreciate it. It’s actually a big deal,” he told a group of Central Asian leaders.

Engel, the presidential historian, said the practice can send a signal to people "that the easiest way to get access and favor from the president is to play to his ego and give him something or name something after him.”

Some of the proposals for honoring Trump include legislation in Congress from New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney that would designate June 14 as “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day," placing the president with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington and Jesus Christ, whose birthdays are recognized as national holidays.

Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube has introduced legislation that calls for the Washington-area rapid transit system, known as the Metro, to be renamed the “Trump Train.” North Carolina Republican Rep. Addison McDowell has introduced legislation to rename Washington Dulles International Airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport.

McDowell said it makes sense to give Dulles a new name since Trump has already announced plans to revamp the airport, which currently is a tribute to former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.

The congressman said he wanted to honor Trump because he feels the president has been a champion for combating the scourge of fentanyl, a personal issue for McDowell after his brother’s overdose death. But he also cited Trump’s efforts to strike peace deals all over the world and called him “one of the most consequential presidents ever.”

“I think that’s somebody that deserves to be honored, whether they’re still the president or whether they’re not," he said.

More efforts are underway in Florida, Trump’s adopted home.

Republican state lawmaker Meg Weinberger said she is working on an effort to rename Palm Beach International Airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport, a potential point of confusion with the Dulles effort.

The road that the president will see christened Friday is not the first Florida asphalt to herald Trump upon his return to the White House.

In the south Florida city of Hialeah, officials in December 2024 renamed a street there as President Donald J. Trump Avenue.

Trump, speaking at a Miami business conference the next month, called it a “great honor” and said he loved the mayor for it.

“Anybody that names a boulevard after me, I like,” he said.

He added a few moments later: “A lot of people come back from Hialeah, they say, ‘They just named a road after you.' I say, ‘That’s OK.’ It’s a beginning, right? It’s a start.”

FILE - A sign for the Rose Garden is seen near the Presidential Walk of Fame on the Colonnade at the White House, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as a flag pole is installed on the South Lawn of the White House, June 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - Workers add President Donald Trump's name to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, after a Trump-appointed board voted to rename the institution, in Washington, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - A poster showing the Trump Gold Card is seen as President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, Sept. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file)