Christian Horner asserts that Kimi Antonelli has rightfully earned the position of Mercedes’ lead driver following a dominant 2026 season.
With a 102-point advantage over teammate George Russell and six rounds remaining, Antonelli is on the verge of clinching the championship in Austin.
Antonelli has accomplished this in just his second F1 season, securing 14 podiums including eight victories, and currently holds the upper hand over Russell, who entered 2026 as the title favorite.
Horner argues that Antonelli is the right choice to lead Mercedes’ charge if another team becomes a contender, reigniting the debate over whether teams should designate a primary driver.
During his tenure as Red Bull team principal from 2005 to 2025, Horner frequently championed this approach, first with Sebastian Vettel and later with Max Verstappen, both of whom secured four world titles.
McLaren adopted a contrasting strategy last season, distributing equal focus between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, though both were ultimately outpaced by Verstappen.
As Horner referenced, the 1986 Williams FW11 powered Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, yet Alain Prost claimed the drivers’ championship for McLaren.
Mansell’s hopes of winning the 1986 title dramatically ended with an exploding tyre at the Australia finale
Photo by: Sutton Images
“It’s very hard to keep everybody happy all the time,” Horner told Autosport. “You’ve just got to be honest and with the principles of ‘okay, what are the objectives here’.
“At the end of the day, the team is what comes first and the drivers are ultimately contractors. To promise both drivers that you can be able to win a world championship is unrealistic.
“Ultimately there will be one driver that achieves superiority on track and they’re both given the same equipment, but you earn the respect and a status within a team by what you do on a track.
“It’s like Kimi Antonelli at the moment. He’s earning that position in that team by what he’s doing on circuit and if there came to a tight fight between him and a rival from another team, the team would have to take a stance.
“Otherwise they risk losing a championship in the way that Williams potentially did with Mansell and Piquet against Prost all those years ago. So it’s just how you set your stall out to go racing.”
The motivation behind Red Bull always picking a number one perhaps stemmed from 2010 when Vettel and team-mate Mark Webber often collided while vying for the title.
The near-miss allowed Fernando Alonso to claim the championship, but from 2011 onward, Vettel asserted dominance over Webber, and Verstappen replicated the pattern over his subsequent teammates.
Everything at Red Bull is built around Verstappen
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
“What it taught me in the early days, we were a young team, we just started winning and then all the pressures that go with winning and the expectations suddenly rise,” added Horner.
“The media scrutiny and the spotlight is on you, everything is being analysed to the nth degree and you’ve just got to stick to your principles.
“You can’t keep everybody happy all of the time and it’s doing what is best for the team.
“That’s what my job was, I was employed to do the best for Red Bull Racing which meant winning.”