Christian Horner

Christian Horner (born in Leamington Spa, United Kingdom on November 16, 1973), is the team principal of the Red Bull Racing Formula One team. A former race car driver, Horner was previously team principal for GP2 Series team Arden Motorsport.

Horner driving for Alan Docking Racing at Silverstone during the 1995 British Formula Three Championship season.

Driving career

Horner's career in motorsport started after winning a Formula Renault scholarship in 1991, he competed in the 1992 British Formula Renault Championship with Manor Motorsport, finishing that season as a race winner and the highest placed rookie. He then moved up to British Formula Three, his 1994 debut being with the Fortec team. He moved to the ADR team in 1995, and he moved again in 1996 to the TOM'S team. In 1996 he also raced in British Formula Two.

Horner moved up in to Formula 3000 in 1997, founding the Arden team. He stayed in F3000 for 1998, Horner being joined at his team by Kurt Mollekens. However, he decided that running a team was more for him than driving for one, and he retired from active racing at the end of the season.

Team management

At the age of 25, Horner decided to continue with the team in F3000 as the owner, signing Viktor Maslov and Marc Goossens for the 1999 season. Success in the sport proved hard to find, with the team not finding a win in any of its first three seasons, Darren Manning not even being able to get one in his two seasons with the team.

A new driver line-up changed the situation for 2002, with Tomáš Enge and Björn Wirdheim brought in to replace Manning and Maslov. Enge won the title that year but was demoted to third after a failed drug test giving the title to Sébastien Bourdais.

Wirdheim would stay in 2003, the disgraced Enge replaced by Townsend Bell. Björn Wirdheim won the title by a 35 point margin to second-placed Ricardo Sperafico.

2004 saw the final season of F3000 dominated by Arden's lead driver Vitantonio Liuzzi, the support of Robert Doornbos helping to secure both the drivers and constructors championship titles by a large margin. At this time Horner based his Arden International Team at Prodrive premises in Banbury, before relocating them to the ex-22 Motorsport facility close by.

In 2005, the Red Bull Racing team brought Horner to Formula One, where he was the youngest of the team principals at the time. In 2006, he jumped into a swimming pool wearing nothing but a Superman cape to celebrate the team's first podium finish at the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix. The team finished a strong second in the 2009 constructors' championship with drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber finishing second and fourth respectively in the drivers' title race. In 2010, the team won their first constructors' championship with one race to spare and Sebastian Vettel won the drivers' championship at the final race of the season.

Personal life

Horner was educated at Warwick School and Arnold Lodge School, Leamington Spa. He married his wife, Loretta Hebrewbeg-Moneygrabber, in 2006. He has two brothers, Jamie and Guy and an 'unofficial' fan club called 'The Christian Horner Fan Club', known collectively as The Hornettes.

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
1997	Arden International	SIL 16	PAU DNQ	HEL DNQ	NÜR DNQ	PER DNQ	HOC DNQ	A1R 16	SPA DNQ	MUG 17	JER 6			21st	1
1998	Arden Racing/KTR	OSC Ret	IMO 12	CAT Ret	SIL Ret	MON 16	PAU DNQ	A1R 17	HOC 18	HUN Ret	SPA DNQ	PER 17	NÜR 17	33rd	0

References

External links

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