DANIEL MOXON What Christian Horner told us in final meeting with media as Red Bull F1 boss

Arriving into the Silverstone paddock on Sunday morning, Christian Horner was one of the very first people I saw. The Red Bull hospitality unit is the very first you see on your right when entering the paddock from the nearest entrance to the bus stop for the inner circuit shuttle.

There was a light drizzle at the time, the opening salvo from the clouds above which caused rain-soaked havoc for the British Grand Prix. Horner was sitting at the window of his office, which was wide open, scrolling on his phone and glancing up at the sky, likely trying to read what the day was going to hold weather-wise.

I wonder if, as he gazed out onto that corner of the paddock, he had any inkling at all that it was going to be his last day at the circuit of a 20-year tenure as boss of Red Bull Racing? If he did, then he did an excellent job of hiding it.

Because there was no indication at all over the course of the Silverstone race weekend that Horner was about to be removed from his roles as chief executive and team principal. Not a whiff of what is likely to be the biggest Formula 1 news story of the year, the exit of one of the sport's most recognisable, if divisive, figures.

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Horner is a wily operator with one of the best poker faces in the business. But even he would have done very well to hide the fact it was his last media session with print reporters on Sunday, after the race, as journalists huddled around him in the team's hospitality unit.

His future was certainly not in focus. Instead, he fielded questions about Max Verstappen and how the Dutchman had gone from starting on pole to finishing fifth, after a spin on the wet track, the ongoing struggles of his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda and the team's upgrade plans for the rest of the year.

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On Verstappen's unfortunate race, he said: "The safety car came out and that’s where the race started to unfold for us, unfortunately. I thought [the spin] was a very good catch from him, but slotted back effectively in 10th place behind Carlos [Sainz].

"Once we were in the pack in that dirty air, in those wet conditions on the downforce level that we were running, you could see just how hard it was for him. But then as the circuit started to dry out, you could see the car starting to find more and more pace and he was able to pick his way through."

He defended Tsunoda who failed to score points again, saying of the Japanese racer: "He picked up a 10 second penalty, which I thought was quite harsh. His problems were the same as Max in the damp conditions and when you're running in dirty air, it makes it incredibly difficult. I think in normal dry conditions he would have scored points today, but we didn't have a normal race."

And he made it clear there is little to come now for Red Bull in terms of their 2025 car, as he said they would "possibly" bring more upgrades: "There are still the last pieces of 2025 [development] going through but, obviously, pretty much 90 percent of the focus now is on 2026."