Red Bull boss Christian Horner under fire after problematic comments about F1's popularity among younger fans

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has come under fire for his recent comments about young girls “being attracted to F1 due to the drivers’ good looks”. During an interview with talkSPORT following his team’s 2022 launch, the Briton was explaining the impacts of Netflix’s Drive to Survive on F1’s improving fortunes.

Speaking of the show attracting new viewers, particularly from the younger generation, Horner said:

“I’ve watched it and the latest season is just coming out. What it’s done for the sport is phenomenal. F1 is bringing in a young generation. It’s bringing in a lot of young girls because of all these great-looking young drivers.”

He further said:

“They want to know more about the characters. Particularly in America, it’s gone bananas, so that’s creating more sponsorship, more revenue, the tracks are all sold-out, Silverstone are trying to put another 20,000 seats in because of the demand.”

These comments seemed to surprise his interviewer Laura Woods. She followed up with a question probing whether he really thought young girls were inspired to watch F1 for good-looking drivers rather than their actual driving talent.

Immediately, Horner clarified his comments, saying that Drive to Survive was inspiring more women to take up roles within motorsport, and not just on the driving side, but in engineering, management and more.

Nevertheless, the Briton’s comments generated immediate backlash on social media, with users calling out the former’s comments as sexist.

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Red Bull boss “surprised” at 2022 F1 cars’ performances

Christian Horner said he was surprised at how close the 2022 F1 cars were to the previous generation in terms of performance after a productive first day of testing in Barcelona yesterday.

Speaking to the media after the session, the Red Bull team principal expressed his surprise at the relatively close lap times of the new cars compared to last year’s cars, saying:

“It’s already surprising how much performance these cars have got. They are certainly not going to be lacking in the high-speed corners, that’s for certain. I would say it was an encouraging morning getting to know the RB18. We’ve just been working through a program. The lap count was good and the feedback from the drivers was encouraging.”

Red Bull’s RB18 finally broke cover in Barcelona, nearly two-weeks after the team launched their 2022 livery with a slightly tweaked demo car. Max Verstappen took the wheel on Day 1 and completed the equivalent of two Grand Prix distances, the most laps of anybody on the grid.

After finally achieving their goal of winning the world championship with Max Verstappen last season, Red Bull hope to aid the Dutchman's title defense in 2022.