Horner calls for Brawn to replace 'inept' Strategy Group

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has described the Strategy Group as "inept" and has called for a figure such as Ross Brawn to help decide F1's future direction.

The Austrian Grand Prix was a fairly unspectacular race in terms of on track battles, while grid penalties drew criticism as both McLaren drivers were faced with 25-place drops on a grid of 20 cars. With Horner calling for F1 to "get back to the basics", he says nothing is being agreed through the Strategy Group.

"I think the Strategy Group is fairly inept," Horner says. "I keep saying it and I will repeat it again now: It is the commercial rights holder and the governing body to decide what F1 should be and then put it on the table to the teams and say ‘this is what we want the product to be, these are the rules, this is the entry form’."

Asked if there could be input from the Sporting Working Group, Horner says he would like to see someone such as Brawn - who was Ferrari technical boss in the early 2000s and later Mercedes team principal - to take an overall look at F1.

"The results of the Sporting Working Group is the penalties we are seeing [in Austria], that become too complex. The technical working group is the engine rules that we have so take it out of those groups, come up with a product and then place it in front of the teams.

"Maybe you need an independent, someone not involved, someone like Ross Brawn that understands the challenges, knows the business, to write a specification for what a car or technical regulations should be."

Click here for the gallery of Raikkonen and Alonso's crash at the Austrian Grand Prix

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

Recent Posts

Ricciardo ‘grateful’ to Red Bull for calling the end to his F1 career

There was a time when former F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo thrived on instinct, late braking,…

4 hours ago

Audi’s first reality check: No short-term fix for one costly weakness

A sense of unease is beginning to settle over Audi’s fledgling Formula 1 campaign, as…

5 hours ago

Alpine issues fiery open letter on Colapinto and social media hate

Alpine has turned to social media to address the storm of backlash following last weekend’s…

7 hours ago

A salute to Sir Jack - trail blazer extraordinaire

F1 legend Sir Jack Brabham, one of Australia's greatest sportsmen, was born on this day…

8 hours ago

The dawn of the GMR-001: Genesis ignites its WEC ambitions!

Feast your eyes on the Genesis GMR-001, the sleek new titan ready to shake up…

9 hours ago

Stroll set for GT World Challenge debut at Paul Ricard

As a sudden forced hiatus puts a halt on Formula 1 this month due to…

11 hours ago