As revealed by PlanetF1.com, Christian Horner’s recent $100million (£74.2m/€85.1m) settlement with Red Bull has opened the door to a sensational Formula 1 comeback during the F1 2026 season.
Yet where could he land next? Let’s rank the existing teams in order of likelihood…
11: Red Bull Racing
Ha. Let’s move on quickly, shall we?
10: Cadillac
You can see the logic: all-new team lacking a track record of F1 success in senior leadership positions.
Yet Dan Towriss, the Cadillac F1 chief executive, nipped this particular link in the bud pretty quickly and very firmly.
“There have been no talks with Christian Horner and there are no plans to do that,” Towriss told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets following the signing of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez in August 2025.
“I’d like to officially shut down that rumour. Our support, belief, and backing are in Graeme Lowdon.”
9: Mercedes
And what role would Mercedes have for him? Making the tea for Toto, perhaps?
8: McLaren
Zak Brown has been even more critical of Horner over the years than Wolff. Another non starter.
7: Audi
If Jonathan Wheatley had sat tight for another year or so, there is every chance he, not Laurent Mekies, would have found himself in the role of Red Bull team principal today.
As it was, he fled the nest and is currently doing a fine job of building the soon-to-be Audi F1 team in his image.
Throwing Horner into that mix would cast a shadow over everything Wheatley is trying to do.
6: Racing Bulls
At first glance, another non starter.
What business would Horner have at a Red Bull-owned team after everything?
Yet rumours have persisted for some time that Red Bull would be open to the sale of its junior team for the right price.
Yes, it’s not the most attractive option available to Horner. But it’s an option all the same.
5: Haas
This one, we know, has some legs to it at least.
Ayao Komatsu, the Haas team principal, went on record at the 2025 Singapore Grand Prix by revealing that Horner “approached us” for exploratory talks before adding that discussions have gone no further.
The eternal problem facing anyone interested in buying Haas – be it Horner or technical partner Toyota, open to a full F1 return in the coming years – is the unique structure of the team.
By far the smallest in Formula 1 today, Haas would require an eye-watering level of investment – and no shortage of time – to be transformed into one of the leading teams on the grid.
Plus those long-standing technical partnerships with Ferrari and Dallara would need to be untangled, and everything brought under one roof, if the team is ever to reach the next level.
There’s a lot of upscaling to be done here. Probably too much to get Horner’s juices flowing.
4: Williams
Now here’s one you can imagine appealing to Horner’s ego: grabbing a team of Williams’ stature by the scruff of the neck and dragging it kicking and screaming back to the front.
Except it probably wouldn’t still be called ‘Williams’ by the time it got there. Most likely ‘Arden’ or something in a nod to the junior team co-founded by Horner and his father Garry.
James Vowles, the Williams team principal, was among those refusing to rule out a potential future with Horner in Singapore.
“I think you should always welcome a conversation,” Vowles said in the team principals’ press conference when asked about Horner. “There’s no point closing the door.
“But I think we are very happy with the structure we have and it’s working, so I don’t see any reason to make any changes to that.”
3: Ferrari
Most are in agreement that when Horner commits to an F1 comeback, he will pursue a team-ownership-style position in a similar role to that held by Toto Wolff.
You can imagine Christian’s eyes flickering with envy over the last decade knowing that whenever Mercedes wins, so does Toto’s bank balance in his role as chief executive, team principal and one-third team owner.
That’s the dream, surely, for any self-respecting F1 team boss in the modern age.
Yet if any team could convince Horner to put his dream on hold, it is probably Ferrari.
As previously reported by PlanetF1.com, Ferrari has already shown an interest in him in 2025 with the team making an approach to Horner not long before his Red Bull departure.
The appeal is obvious, yet so too are the downsides.
Why uproot his family and move from his comfortable life in the Oxfordshire countryside – and a home featured so often on Drive to Survive that much of the F1 fanbase must feel like they live there too – to Italy?
And why, after all the success he has achieved already in this sport, subject himself to the kind of nonsense and ridicule the likes of Fred Vasseur have had to put up with from an impatient and unreasonable Italian media?
Everything suggests that Horner has had enough of answering to The Man (boards, shareholders, etc) and now wants to be The Man instead.
But the irresistible lure of Ferrari can do funny things to people.
2: Alpine
At least once each season, the Alpine team will deliver a result to leave you wondering just how Renault keeps getting it so wrong.
For all the crises at Enstone over recent years, this remains one helluva race team and Alpine is probably the closest team on the current grid – lacking direction yet bursting with potential – to the one Horner found in his early days at Red Bull.
Doubts have persisted for some time over Renault’s commitment to F1 and the decision – thought to have been led by Horner’s friend Flavio Briatore – to repurpose the French manufacturer’s historic engine facility at Viry-Chatillon continues to be interpreted as a first step towards the full sale of the team.
Renault has invested in the facilities at Enstone since repurchasing the team at the end of 2015 without much reward, yet all the raw ingredients are here.
Sometimes all it takes is the introduction of a single brilliant individual for an underachieving team to start realising its potential.
Enter Horner?
1: Aston Martin
Andy Cowell’s inexperience as an F1 team principal showed when he discussed a potential role for Horner in Singapore.
The Aston Martin team principal effectively did the hokey cokey with himself, first leaving the door open to a link up with Horner during his Thursday media activities.
Then insisting there are “no plans for involvement of Christian either in a operational or investment role in the future” in the FIA’s press conference 24 hours later.
Normally with such wild volte-faces, the first set of answers – the ones given before anyone gets the chance to have a quiet word – tend to be the most revealing.
Yet why?
Why would Lawrence Stroll sell the team now, when Aston Martin – with Adrian Newey on board – appears on the brink of the success it has been working towards?
Perhaps the answer lies in the rumours linking Max Verstappen with a move to the team earlier this year.
Along with the Max links came the suggestion of increased Saudi Arabian involvement at Aston Martin, already represented in the F1 team by title partner Aramco.
It only added credence to the belief held by some that it is simply a matter of time until Mr Stroll offloads the team entirely to the Saudis.
And if that transaction does occur within the next few years, what better public-facing individual for Saudi Arabia than one of the most recognisable and successful team principals in F1 history?
Aramco F1 Team fronted by Christian Horner, anyone?
You heard it here first.
Read next: Has McLaren really been playing favourites in Norris v Piastri title fight?