Former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has said ex-Red Bull principal Christian Horner wielded too much power to stay in his position and "got away with so many things."
Horner was abruptly sacked on Wednesday after 20 years at the helm of Red Bull Racing, one of the most successful stints the sport has ever seen, and replaced by Laurent Mekies.
His departure came after years of infighting and acrimony behind the scenes.
Ecclestone, a long-time friend of Horner, said ultimately his time was up as soon as the results started slipping so dramatically over the past few months.
"It would probably have been better if they had said, 'Come in, Christian, sit down,'" Ecclestone told The Telegraph.
"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."
Referencing some of the movement behind the scenes at Red Bull over the past few weeks, Ecclestone added: "I know it was suggested to him he should be a team manager and leave the commercial side to somebody else.
"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.'"
Horner's future in the Red Bull job had been a talking point for a while.
Last year he was was twice cleared of sexual misconduct after an allegation from a former Red Bull employee. Horner strenuously denied the allegations levelled against him.
"This business that he got involved with 18 months ago, he was just an idiot," Ecclestone added. "He was a 50-year-old who thought he was 20, thought he was one of the boys."
Ecclestone suggested he had little sympathy for the complainant, saying: "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'."