Christian Horner gives X-rated ‘silent assassin’ jibe to Eddie Jordan

Red Bull’s design guru Newey will leave the team at the start of 2025 after 19 years working with Horner

Christian Horner labelled Eddie Jordan a “silent assassin” after the ex-team boss negotiated Adrian Newey’s early release from his Red Bull contract.

Design guru Newey, Red Bull’s chief technical officer, will leave the team at the start of 2025 after 19 years working alongside Horner. Ferrari are the favourites to land Newey, who is yet to announce his next move.

In his exit announcement, Newey thanked his “close friend and manager” Jordan for his help – in a partnership which was not common knowledge – and Horner soon rang ex-team principal Jordan following Newey’s exit.

“Christian, do you know what he called me – do you know what he called me when he found this,” Jordan told the Formula For Success podcast, in conversation with ex-F1 driver David Coulthard.

“First of all, his jaw was somewhere around near the end of his trousers. It’s quite a big jaw in the first place. But he called me ‘Ah, EJ, you’re a f****** silent assassin.

“I don’t know what a silent assassin is. Maybe you could tell us, DC, what is that?”

Coulthard replied: “You’d rather be a silent assassin than somebody hearing you coming. No-one saw that coming at all. Nobody knew you were managing Adrian.”

Newey could join forces with Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari next year and admitted in Miami he was “flattered” by Hamilton’s endorsement.

The 65-year-old, who has played a significant role in 13 drivers’ world championships and a dozen constructors’ titles, is free to join another team when he leaves Red Bull in the first quarter of next year, possibly before the opening round in Australia in March.

Eddie Jordan with Geri Halliwell and Christian Horner in Monaco in 2011 (Getty Images)

Adrian Newey will leave Horner’s Red Bull team at the start of 2025 (Getty Images)

Newey’s departure from Red Bull comes in the wake of team principal Christian Horner being accused of “inappropriate behaviour” by a female employee. He was exonerated by Red Bull’s parent company GmbH on the eve of last month’s curtain-raiser in Bahrain and has always denied the claims.

“Formula 1 is all consuming,” Newey said in Miami last week. “I’ve been at it for a long time now. There comes a point, as Forrest Gump said, I’m feeling a little bit tired.

“I have been thinking about if for a little while now if I’m honest. I guess over the winter, and then as events have unfolded this year. I’m in the very lucky position where I don’t need to work to live.

“I work because I enjoy it and I just felt now was a good time to step back, to take a bit of a break and take stock of life.

“Maybe at some point, I don’t know when, I’ll be standing in the shower and I’ll say, right, this is going to be the next adventure. But right now there is no plan.”

It remains to be seen what effect Newey’s Red Bull exit will have on the team’s superstar driver, Max Verstappen.