Former F1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, appears to be just as mystified at Christian Horner's sacking as the rest of us.
The 94-year-old, who has been embroiled in numerous controversies of his own making over the years - most of which he appeared to revel in - is close to the former Red Bull boss and at one point was thought to be grooming him as a successor.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Ecclestone, though mystified by Horner's sacking - especially the 'with immediate effect' aspect of it - tends to think it goes back to the improper behaviour scandal that arose early last year.
"This business that he got involved with eighteen months ago, he was just an idiot," said the former Brabham boss. "He was a 50-year-old who thought he was twenty, thought he was one of the boys."
Despite the amount of material leaked to the media, Horner was twice cleared of sexual harassment and coercive behaviour, though there is a legal case going ahead next year.
Ecclestone, who ruled his teams, the sport and the media with a rod of iron, admits that he holds little sympathy for the woman at the centre of the scandal.
"I often wonder, when these situations happen, why, if the girl is so upset with the advances of someone, they don't just say, 'Oi you, stop it!'" he said.
Though he feels the scandal was at the heart of it all, Ecclestone believes it provided the perfect ammunition for the various factions within the Red Bull team and indeed the Red Bull empire to oust the man, as the team appeared to become more 'Milton Keynes' centric.
"It would probably have been better if they had said, 'Come in, Christian, sit down,'" he said. "But the bottom line is that there are people there who thought he was getting away with things, that he was acting as if it was not the Red Bull Ring, but the Christian Horner Ring.
"He got away with so many things. And all the time you're delivering, people close their eyes. But when you stop delivering, people start looking. One or two begin thinking, 'Well, I could do a better job'."
As is so often the case, it was the death of the 'father figure', Dietrich Mateschitz, that sparked division within the Red Bull 'family'.
"Genuinely, it was a little bit of a muddle," said Ecclestone. "Christian was the chief executive. If I'm the chief executive of a company, I want to be in charge. I want to do all the things that I think are right, and if I'm wrong, they can fire me, they can say, 'Sorry, bye-bye, you made a few mistakes.'
"So, the minute Christian can't be in that position to do what he thinks should be done, then for him it's not easy. You can't half-manage something. You need to have someone, I always say, to turn the lights on and off. You only really need one person.
"It was suggested to him he should be a team manager and leave the commercial side to somebody else," Ecclestone continued. "His idea was, 'I am the chief executive'.
"But you get very few executives who can do everything, from engineering to public relations. He had been running the company the way he thought it should be run. For a long time, people were prepared to say, 'OK, fair enough, he's getting the job done'. But as soon as you go off a little bit, people look and say, 'Hang on'.
"Christian won a lot of championships. He was used to winning. So, it's not easy when you're not winning, and when you know that it's not entirely your fault."
Talking to RacingNews365, Ecclestone revealed that he had spoken to Horner on Monday, in the aftermath of the British Grand Prix weekend, and there was no indication of what was to come.
"I spoke to him and he didn't know," said Ecclestone. "Well, he might have known," he added, "but he didn't tell me. It was a normal conversation. We were talking about Max. Nothing to do with this, otherwise he would have told me.
"All I know is the message the whole world has got, which is, he's been fired, effective immediately, and it's the 'effective immediately' I don't understand," he admitted. "Why would they ask him to leave with immediate effect? It's like he's murdered somebody.
"If you're going to fire somebody, then you'd have a chat before and you'd come out with something like, 'We've agreed to part company,' or something. But to come out and say, 'you're fired with immediate effect,' he must have done something a bit drastic for that to happen.
"Let's assume they were unhappy with the results, which I can understand, that's one thing. But to be fired immediately, that's a different thing altogether."
Sadly, the real winners here are the likes of Drive to Survive, for as the sport goes into a two week break and the F1 Movie is converting new fans in cinemas around the world, Horner's sacking has made the mainstream media headlines.
There's more drama to come of course, what with where Horner might go next, indeed where Max Verstappen might go, not forgetting that legal case.
However, if Stefano and the guys at F1 Towers really want to clean up in the 'all publicity is good publicity' stakes, they need another controversial in the sport.
No disrespect to Laurent Mekies, but would Red Bull consider a man who oversaw Nelson Piquet's two titles with Brabham... just think about it, Bernie back in the pitlane.
sign in