True or false? This is the remarkable rumor about Red Bull!

A somewhat strange rumor has surfaced at first glance: Red Bull Racing is allegedly afraid that staff members will depart because they would be free to come and go as they please if the former team boss is no longer an employee of the Austrian racing stable.

Journalist Joe Saward reports in his Green Book that there are people who work at Red Bull Racing who have contractually tied their future to Christian Horner: if he leaves, they too can terminate their contract.

GPblog has inquired about this rumor at Red Bull Racing, but so far no reaction has been received from Milton Keynes during the holiday season.

It is certainly remarkable if Red Bull Racing has entered into such arrangements.

In other sports, a coach or manager can bring his own people to the team. If the boss then disappears, the club has the right to also send off the staff associated with the coach or manager.

In Red Bull Racing's case, it would be the other way around, and the people around Horner would have the opportunity to move on.

Saward does not mention which staff members this involves. If the story is true that there are people who can just leave without Horner as team boss, then naturally the next question is whether they would actually make use of that right.

While there are enough teams who want to poach highly qualified staff from a competitor, but can they earn salaries like they do at Red Bull?

Before there can be any talk of departures in the wake of Horner, the British former boss must first agree on the (financial) conditions of his departure. Several weeks after his suspension, there seems to be no sign of that yet.