Christian Horner has outlined the circumstances in which he’d like to return to Formula 1, in his first public statements since his split with Red Bull Racing.
The former team boss and CEO of Red Bull’s F1 operations departed the Milton Keynes-based squad after last season’s British Grand Prix, with the parent company opting for change after 21 years of racing with Horner at the helm.
Christian Horner: I don’t need to go back to F1
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Since his departure from the paddock, Horner has been the subject of intense speculation about his next moves in F1.
Having become one of the most successful team leaders in the history of the sport with 124 Grand Prix wins and 14 titles, Horner is an obvious candidate for any high-level management position, and he has been duly linked with various positions across the grid – the most prominent of which have been Aston Martin and Alpine.
With Horner’s position having long been understood to have been one in which the British executive was actively seeking a shareholding or ownership position for his next role in F1, he confirmed this stance during his first public appearance since being removed from his posts at Red Bull when he arrived in Dublin this weekend.
PlanetF1.com was in attendance for Horner’s appearance at the European Motor Show at the RDS in Dublin, where he spoke to the media and assembled fans about the speculation that has surrounded him over the past seven months.
“What’s been fascinating…I stepped out of Red Bull on July 8th, and this is the first time I’ve actually spoken to anybody,” he said.
“Having a bit of time out has been fascinating… I think I’ve been going to every single Formula 1 team at some point, which has ranged from the back of the grid to the front of the grid to the middle of the grid.
“It just seems there’s an appetite in the media about what am I going to do? Where am I going to go?
“The reality is, until the spring, I can’t do anything anyway, and so it’s very flattering to keep being associated with all these different teams.
“I think the only one I haven’t been associated with yet is with Red Bull, but you never know!” he joked.
“I’ve had 21 incredible years in Formula 1, and I’ve had a great run. I’ve won a lot of races and championships.
“I’ve worked with some amazing drivers, engineers, partners, and just people. It’s a people business.
“I don’t need to go back. I could stop my career now, and I’ve had a great run, and I think I would only go back for the right opportunity to work with great people, to work in an environment where people want to win, and they share that desire.
“I want to be a partner, as opposed to just a hired hand. But, yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see how things play out. I’m not in any rush.
“I don’t need to do anything, and it’s quite nice after not only 21 years in Formula 1, but 10 years before that on the road in Formula 2 or Formula 3000.
“It’s a bit nice having a bit of time out at the moment with my family, my kids, and they sort of recognise who I am again!”
Christian Horner: I’ve got unfinished business in F1
The apparent leading candidate for Horner’s return appears to be a potential purchase of Otro Capital’s 24 per cent stake in Alpine, which PlanetF1.com recently revealed cannot be sold until September without the full approval of the majority shareholder, the Renault Group.
Alpine recently confirmed that Horner, as part of a group of investors, has expressed interest in the stake, with any discussions taking place with Otro Capital and the Renault Group.
But the 52-year-old said any return to the paddock will only come if he finds the right challenge to inspire him, rather than simply taking up the first opportunity that comes his way.
“I don’t want to go back into the paddock unless I have something to do”, he said.
“I miss the sport, I miss the people, I miss the team that I built, you know, some great people and personalities.
“But I’ve enjoyed this period of time out and having time.
“I’m sure there’s going to be loads of speculation, but I’m peaceful in myself at the moment, where, if there’s the right opportunity, then I definitely will have a good look at it.
“I feel like I’ve got unfinished business in Formula 1. It didn’t finish the way that I would have liked it to have finished.
“But I’m not going to come back for just anything. I’m only going to come back for something that can win.”
Christian Horner spoke for the first time in seven months at the European Motor Show today, and says he has “unfinished business” in #F1… pic.twitter.com/i7CdC8BMus
— Thomas Maher (@thomasmaheronf1) January 31, 2026
Christian Horner ‘proud’ to see RBPT become a reality
This week marked the arrival of the first Red Bull Powertrain engine in the back of a Red Bull car, marking the commencement of Horner’s former team as a fully fledged autonomous manufacturer in its own right, joining the likes of Audi, Ferrari, and Mercedes.
RBPT had been initiated and overseen by Horner in 2022, having convinced the late Dietrich Mateschitz and the Red Bull board that the path was the correct one to take after Honda’s then-latest withdrawal from F1 after the ’21 season.
Landing a technical partnership with Ford months later, Red Bull’s engine department has swelled to several hundred employees under technical director Ben Hodgkinson, with Horner’s involvement in the project coming to an end just a few short months before the first engine hit the track in the back of the RB22 and the VCARB03.
The engine proved reliable right from the start, with Isack Hadjar logging over 100 laps at its very first attempt.
“I’ve had a great time in the sport, I gave it my everything, and I’m very proud of what I achieved,” Horner said.
“I was very proud this week to see the engine in the back of the Red Bull running in Barcelona, because that arguably was one of the biggest things that I achieved in my time there, when we took an engine concept from almost five years ago today.
“We kicked that off when we had, I think, one engineer who worked in engines before, and we had an old bubble wrap factory on the estate. I convinced the board to do it, and then had to go and recruit 600 people and build a factory in the facility.
“So I was very proud to see that, running this week, I had some lovely messages from the circuit and the drivers. Hopefully, that will go well for them.”
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