Zak Brown has backed a Christian Horner return, arguing the F1 paddock lacks the strong personalities the sport thrives on without his presence.

Though the pair have clashed in the past, Brown described the former Red Bull team principal as a “great operator” and said he would be shocked if he did not find his way back into the paddock.

Zak Brown backs Christian Horner return as old team Red Bull resets

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Red Bull’s hierarchy today looks very different from what it did two years ago.

Not only has the team lost key players in Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley, but long-serving team boss Horner was let go last season in a shock announcement just days after the British Grand Prix.

The pantomime villain in many rival team bosses’ tales, Horner was also one of the most successful, with eight drivers’ championship titles and seven constructors’ crowns.

Amid declining results and off-track issues, Horner was given the boot after the 2025 British Grand Prix and weeks later, as reported by PlanetF1.com, secured a multi-million pound package that allows him to return to Formula One in 2026.

Linked to Alpine having lodged a bid to buy Otro Capital’s 24 per cent stake in the Formula 1 team, Horner could be back in the paddock before the end of the year.

Brown, who butted heads with the Briton in the past, says he’d welcome it.

“Christian was a great personality for the sport. Sport always has great personalities. They come in, come and go,” he told PlanetF1.com and other invited media on Wednesday.

“I think it’d be great to have Christian back in the sport. He’s a great operator. His track record speaks for itself.

“I’d rather have 10 weak team principals, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon, and there’s huge talent that’s coming up. You know all the time. There’s been a lot of defensive moves here in the last two to three years.

“But I think it’d be great to have him back in this given his passion for the sport and his age, I’d be shocked if he wasn’t back in the sport, whether it was with Alpine or someone else.”

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Red Bull’s painful reset leaves Laurent Mekies facing a daunting rebuild

Laurent Mekies backed in Red Bull reset

Brown also weighed in on Horner’s replacement at Red Bull, Frenchman Laurent Mekies.

The 48-year-old took up the reins in the immediate aftermath of the Horner announcement, and although under his leadership Max Verstappen put in an inspired fight-back in the championship, it was too little too late for the Dutch racer.

This year, Red Bull has taken up the daunting task of designing its own power unit in conjunction with Ford, and so far the results have not gone their way.

The team has just 16 points from three grands prix weekends, and earlier this month was dealt another blow with the news that Verstappen’s long-time race engineer GianPiero Lambiase is off to McLaren no later than 2028.

GP’s departure is the latest hard-hitting loss for Red Bull, who not only said farewell to Horner and long-time advisor Helmut Marko last year, but also lost design legend Adrian Newey to Aston Martin and stalwart Jonathan Wheatley.

Brown says it’s now up to Mekies to rebuild Red Bull in what he called a “reset” and a “redirect”.

“One would be very foolish to write Red Bull off,” he said.

“I think they [Red Bull] have to kind of do a little bit of a reset, right? They lost a lot of people – Christian, Wheatley, GP, Newey, Dan Fallows, I think Dan’s now maybe back.

“So I think much what I came into, which was a different situation, because they were very competitive, but the majority of the pit wall has changed.

“So I think Laurent is going to… I rate Laurent, I think he does a very good job, he’s technical, he’s young, and I think he’s got to rebuild the people that he lost and rebuild the team, and I have no doubt he will.

“And much like McLaren, had an immense amount of talent that just needed to be unlocked, I think that’s probably the same as Red Bull.

“They’ve been very dominant up to not very long ago, so there’s a lot of talent in there, and I think he’ll just need to get a redirect.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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