Christian Horner is set to return to Formula 1, according to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who hinted the Englishman’s comeback plans are already fixed.
Horner was dismissed from the top job at Red Bull Racing one year ago, following the 2025 British Grand Prix, in part because the team’s Austrian parent company grew wary of the power he had amassed over two decades as chief executive.
He subsequently received a whopping payout worth a reported US$100 million (A$145 million) to cancel his contract early. Sky Sports has reported Horner turned down an even larger offer in exchange for a shorter non-compete period, which expired earlier this year.
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The 52-year-old made his first paddock appearance since the dismissal at the weekend’s British Grand Prix, where he was reportedly mobbed by spectators and trailed by the Drive to Survive camera crew as he entered the gates. One of his stops was to meet Ben Sulayem in his office.
The FIA president later told media that he would like to see Horner back working in Formula 1 — and he suggested plans were already in place for the Englishman’s comeback.
“He will get back,” he said, per ESPN. “Where is not for me to say — even if I know. It is for him to say.”
Horner has been linked to multiple teams, but his most likely options appear to be Alpine, where a 24 per cent share in the squad will be up for sale later in the year, and Chinese auto giant BYD, with whom he’s held talks about a prospective new entry, which Ben Sulayem has also backed.
Speaking to Sky Sports on the Silverstone grid, Horner wouldn’t be drawn on his most likely destination but said he would “only look at doing the right thing, something that really had an opportunity to win”.
He has previously also stipulated that he would want to come back as “a partner rather than just a hired hand”.
Despite running Red Bull Racing for 20 years, Horner was never a shareholder in the team, which left him exposed to his surprise dismissal.
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The sacking followed a tumultuous two seasons at the helm, beginning with allegations of inappropriate workplace behaviour in early 2024. Those allegations were twice dismissed by internal Red Bull investigations, but they blew open a rift in the team, with Jos Verstappen, the father of four-time champion Max Verstappen, publicly calling for him to go.
Combined with the Red Bull board’s growing discomfort with Horner’s personal power and the team’s slumping results in 2024 and early 2025 — allied to some bizarre contract calls on Sergio Pérez and Liam Lawson — it was enough to pull the trigger.
Ben Sulayem argued, however, that Horner’s career results were the only things that mattered.
“I am a believer that when you have a team you have to forget about what this person is doing, his personality. Do you want the result or not?” he said.
“You look at his background. Please. Everybody makes mistakes, but did he deliver? What do you want? Do you want to win or not? Do you want to give it a try or not?
“There are behaviours, and bad behaviours, and if you do bad behaviour, it will catch on you and nobody will want you.
“But it is about results — you bring someone, you pay him millions to get results.
“Of course he shouldn’t go and kill someone, or drink and driving — that is bad behaviour, but I said certain behaviours.”
Horner said he was in “no rush” to rejoin the sport.
‘F*** THIS’ Verstappen rages after crash | 01:09
NORRIS TORCHES RUSSELL OVER GRANDSTAND CLAIM
Lando Norris says he has “more passionate fans” than George Russell as his Mercedes compatriot contemplates setting up his own grandstand at next year’s British Grand Prix.
Silverstone organisers debuted the ‘Landostand’ at last year’s grand prix at the outside of Stowe, the 240-kilometre-per-hour right-hander near the end of the lap.
Its success, combined with Norris’s maiden championship, triggered the circuit to considerably expand the stand for this season. Spectators also received T-shirts in Norris’s fluoro yellow, ensuring their section of the circuit was unmissable in television pictures.
Four-day tickets to the stand sold for £569 (A$1100) a pop.
Norris is the only British driver with a Silverstone grandstand named after him, though the pit straight was named in Lewis Hamilton’s honour at the end of 2020.
As the next highest profile British driver, Russell revealed he was considering setting up his own grandstand.
“I would like it, to be honest,” he said, per ESPN. “It’s something we’ve spoken about with the team in the past. It’s probably something we’re working towards for next year.
“Where I’d like to put it? Lando’s got quite a good spot on the outside of Stowe, so I’ll try and steal it off him!”
Having had Russell’s assertion put to him, Norris suggested his stand was an organic creation that his compatriot would struggle to match.
“Good luck,” Norris smiled. “He can do whatever he wants. I just have I think more passionate fans and a better fan base.
“Mine was more wanted from a public point of view, which is a great thing.
“Even in my grandstand there’s a good mix of all fans. It’s not just simply fans who are here to support me. It’s my grandstand, but at the same time it’s full of, sadly, some other teams and also other drivers, which I’ve got nothing against.
“He can do whatever he wants, but he’s certainly not taking any of my seats.”
Russell stood on the Silverstone podium for the first time at the weekend after finishing second behind winner Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc wins amidst safety car confusion | 03:32
FERRARI IN SPANISH GRAND PRIX COUP
Ferrari will conduct a filming day at the new venue of the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid in a bid to get a head start on preparations for the 13 September race.
The Spanish Grand Prix is moving from Barcelona to Madrid this year, where the brand-new semi-street Madring circuit has been constructed around the city’s exhibition centre near the airport.
The circuit was recently completed, though construction continues on the track infrastructure, including grandstands.
The track’s 5.416-kilometre, 22-turn layout comprises an ambitious mix of high-speed bends and extreme banking along with some more traditional 90-degree street-style corners that will make set-up difficult to estimate.
But in what could be a decisive move, Ferrari will conduct a so-called ‘promotional event’ to earn itself an exclusive first look at the track.
Promotional events — more commonly described as filming days — are tightly regulated opportunities for teams to put their current Formula 1 cars on track at a time in-season testing is otherwise banned.
Cars are limited to 200 kilometres and must be fitted with special demonstration tyres supplied by Pirelli.
Teams are limited to two filming days per year. Ferrari already used one of its allocation in Monza in April.
Italian publication AutoRacer has reported that Madring organisers invited Ferrari specifically to inaugurate the circuit though did not expect the team to run a current Formula 1 car.
However, teams are banned from running older-spec F1 cars at the Madring — and any other new circuit — until after the event under regulation changes this year designed to prevent the proliferation of private testing with previous cars to benefit performance in the current seasons.
Teams are also prevented from testing old cars on established circuits within a 60-day period prior to the start of the race weekend.
Madrid is contract to host the Spanish Grand Prix until at least 2035.
Barcelona had hosted the national grand prix since 1991 but this year was held as the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. It will remain on the calendar but alternate with the Belgian Grand Prix, appearing again in 2028, 2030 and 2032.
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