The exit of race director Michael Masi was due to Mercedes' behavior.
Was it right to fire him because of pressure from a rival team? That was wrong for me.
That is akin to being bullied. It is passive aggressive.
Lewis Hamilton refused to commit to coming back to Formula 1 this season until he had seen the results of the inquiry into the race in Abu Dhabi.
Mercedes did not comment.
Hamilton was beaten to the drivers' title by Red Bull's Max Verstappen after a safety-car period late in the season.
Masi has been offered a new role at the governing body of the sport and replaced as race director by two people who will alternate in the job, with a new support structure put in place to diminish the pressure on the role.
In a wide-ranging interview, Horner talked about:
Yes, Michael did make mistakes and it was frustrating, but you have to look at the role that he was in and the tools that he had at his disposal.
You cannot just blame Michael. It is unfair to do that.
The amount of blame he and Red Bull leveled at officials in the course of 2021, has drawn some criticism from within F1 for talking about the need to be concerned for Masi's mental health.
He said that he spoke out because he felt that Masi had been treated badly by fans and the FIA.
He is in a high-pressure role in a high-pressure sport.
He and his family had death threats, and that is unforgivable. That can't be condoned in any way.
That has nothing to do with the sport. I would not accept that within our organisation.
I spoke up for Michael because I felt that he had not been supported. He didn't have any support. He had been hung out to dry and there was a concerted campaign against him.
I will always stand up for someone who is being bullied. It is not acceptable to be bullied.
Many senior figures within F1 accept that Masi failed to administer the rules correctly in Abu Dhabi in two different ways - in only letting some of the lapped cars out of the way of the leaders, and in the timing of the restart.
Hamilton was on the verge of winning an eighth world title. The sequence of events at the end left him a sitting duck on old tyres, and on the single racing lap after the restart, Verstappen passed the Mercedes to win his first world title.
In both the decisions it has taken and the remarks by the executive director of single-seaters on the race, the FIA has acknowledged mistakes were made.
I don't believe the rules were followed correctly. I think that they were applied differently to how they had been before, by not allowing every single car to unlap.
He said that if the stewards felt the rules were not applied correctly, they wouldn't have declared the result.
Masi was pressured by Red Bull in Abu Dhabi.
Masi was told by Horner that he only needed one racing lap.
Masi was pressured by Red Bull to speak to Wolff about the way the race had been handled.
Red Bull applied less pressure to Masi than Mercedes did.
"You have to report the facts," he said. It was not me. I am only responding to the pressure being applied on him that I can hear from a rival team. My job is to defend it as the principal of the team.
I think it was less than the pressure that our rivals were putting on us to not have a safety car. To back-track a lap. Not to have a virtual safety car, or for the virtual safety car to go into a full safety car.
He said that Masi's decision to let only some cars through had not made a difference to the result.
The driver of the car was not injured in the incident.
Would you have had a problem with it if they had released all seven of them?
If they got all seven out of the way, it would not affect the outcome of the championship. The only mistake he made was not releasing the back two cars, that he could have easily done, but it had no effect on the race.
Several figures in F1 have admitted that Masi was trying to follow instructions to avoid races ending under a safety-car period.
The success of Drive To Survive has led to accusations that the sport has allowed entertainment to take priority over sporting integrity.
It would have been the worst finish to the season. It would have been shocking if it ended under a safety car after an accident.
When it was pointed out to him that the image of F1 had beentarnished by the controversy, he said that the production director of Netflix was not sitting next to Michael Masi.
F1 is still a sport, but sport is an entertainment, according to Horner. In the past two and a half months, there have been more people talking about Formula 1 than in the past.
The viewing figures have never been bigger. The promoter is sold out. They are trying to add more seats. There is more competition to host a Grand Prix. Is it all that bad?
Verstappen and Hamilton staged one of the all-time great title battles, and Verstappen drove an outstanding season in 2021.
His tendency to force rivals off the track in wheel-to-wheel battles has drawn criticism.
Has Verstappen ever been told to drive less aggressively by Horner?
We talk about any incident, but it will always be between me and him.
"Max is a forceful driver. He's an aggressive driver. And that driving style is why he was voted the most popular driver in Formula 1 [in a survey of motorsport fans conducted by the sport]. You just know he is going to give 110%."
Does he want to keep driving the way he is?
Absolutely.
In all the moves?
You are always going to learn, aren't you? I think the way he drove last year, he showed tremendous maturity and the others make mistakes.
There are other drivers that make aggressive actions as well. Max is an aggressive driver. That's who he is. He will always be close to the limit and he will learn from his experiences. I have no doubt about that.
Verstappen signed a contract extension with Red Bull last week.
The deal shows real intent from both sides and was negotiated straight forward.
The decision by Verstappen shows great faith in Red Bull in the context of the withdrawal of their engine partner Honda at the end of last season, with no insight into how the power units will compare this year, following the beginning of an engine development freeze.
It shows his confidence in us. I think that it made a lot of sense because of the commitment and investment of the group. There is pressure on us to deliver. That is normal in this business.
F1 staged three "sprint" events last year, which used a short race on Saturday to set the grid for the main grand prix.
The sport wanted to double the number this year, and presented data to the teams that showed the sprints increased audiences and revenue.
Red Bull blocked moves to increase the number of sprints.
They argued that the budget cap was being reduced by $5m this year, and that more races meant more costs, so they demanded more money than a simple pro-rata increase of the compensation payments that were made last year.
A compromise was reached to hold three sprint events.
In the interests of the sport, we conceded to agree to three sprint races. The increase of inflation is not allowed.
When you see gas and electricity bills, the amount of inflation that is going on at the moment is irrelevant to what the budget cap was set for. It was limited to three races because of that.
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