despite an eye-watering pay-off<\/a> from the squad he ran for more than a decade.<\/p>\nThe Englishman has been linked most closely with Alpine, where a 24 per cent stake in the team is up for sale, but has also been connected to Aston Martin.<\/p>\n
But MotoGP, now sharing Liberty Media with Formula 1 as a common owner, has caught Horner\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have always been a big fan of MotoGP, and while I\u2019ve got a little bit of time, I thought it was a good opportunity to come down and have a look at the championship,\u201d he told the MotoGP broadcast at the weekend\u2019s Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a really interesting time for MotoGP. It\u2019s going through a period of change under new ownership as well. I wanted to come here and see a little bit for myself. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great racing. It\u2019s a great show. The riders are incredible and the bikes are incredible. It\u2019s only when you get to see it live that you appreciate how insane these machines are.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think as a sport it has so much to offer, so hopefully the Liberty guys, with the experience they have in Formula 1, will be able to lean into that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Horner spent time in the Honda garage, having worked closely with the Japanese brand when it was supplying engines to Red Bull Racing between 2019 and 2025.<\/p>\n
While the MotoGP link is purely speculative, Horner wouldn\u2019t be the first contemporary mover from four wheel to two.<\/p>\n
Guenther Steiner, the former Haas boss, became the Tech3 team principal and CEO this year after leading a buyout of Herv\u00e9 Poncharal\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
Massimo Rivola, the Aprilia CEO, started his motorsport career in Formula 1, having held the roles of team manager at the former Toro Rosso team and later sporting director at Ferrari before joining the MotoGP paddock in 2019.<\/p>\n
Davide Brivio has switched between the two, moving from the top of the defunct Suzuki team to become Alpine\u2019s F1 racing director before moving back to MotoGP as Trackhouse team principal.<\/p>\n
Marquez scorches practice in Spain | 00:55<\/p>\n
McLAREN BOSS HITS OUT AT MERC BID FOR ALPINE STAKE<\/p>\n
Formula 1 would be making a \u201cmistake\u201d if it allowed Mercedes to buy a stake in the Alpine team, according to McLaren CEO Zak Brown.<\/p>\n
American investment group Otro Capital is looking to offload its 24 per cent share in the majority Renault-owned team after purchasing the stake in 2023.<\/p>\n
Horner, backed by his own investors, is in the running to buy in, but the Mercedes team has since emerged as a serious contender.<\/p>\n
Though both teams have rebuffed suggestions that Alpine could be transformed into a de facto Mercedes junior squad, it is inevitable that the two brands would find ways to work together more closely if they were to share ownership.<\/p>\n
McLaren boss Brown has previously called on the FIA to outlaw common ownership \u2014 which to now has involved only Red Bull\u2019s control of both Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls \u2014 and his position hasn\u2019t changed despite the potentially awkward political position of his team being a Mercedes engine customer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it would be a mistake for the sport,\u201d he said, per The Race.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn today\u2019s day and age, if that\u2019s permitted, I think it runs a real high risk of compromising the integrity of sporting fairness.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been vocal about it from day one. We\u2019ve seen it play out on track in a sporting way, with [then AlphaTauri driver] Daniel Ricciardo taking the fastest lap point away from us [in Singapore in 2024] to help the other team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen IP violations on the Racing Point brake ducts [in 2020].\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown made his comments shortly after Red Bull Racing announced Andrea Landi, the Racing Bulls deputy technical director, would join as its head of performance after less than three months on the sidelines.<\/p>\n
McLaren, meanwhile, is set to wait until 2028 for RBR head of racing Gianpiero Lambiase to join it in a similar role.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen employees move overnight [between affiliated teams], where we either have to wait and sometimes make financial deals, which then impacts us in the cost cap,\u201d Brown continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you see other teams that move from one to the other and then also without financial compensation, that\u2019s an unfair financial advantage. That\u2019s an unfair sporting advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s healthy for the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2027 driver market could pivot on Max Verstappen deciding whether or not to quit Formula 1 at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[8454,306826,306818,1724,64,63,306815,159949,306821,1199,2055,306812,36626,306817,14210,9239,226764,817,845,278134,813,816,2105,841,306824,3552,177555,167447,941,16183,173139,306811,306816,41544,306823,4280,101322,825,306825,86316,306820,2119,16260,306819,306678,238953,306813,2109,942,2812,85,303809,306822,2094,82627,13773,306814,12000,2753],"class_list":{"0":"post-633386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-alex-marquez","9":"tag-american-investment-group","10":"tag-andrea-landi","11":"tag-asia","12":"tag-au","13":"tag-australia","14":"tag-automobile-club-de-monaco","15":"tag-boss-hits","16":"tag-brake-ducts","17":"tag-christian-horner","18":"tag-constructors-championship","19":"tag-contemporary-mover","20":"tag-cost-cap","21":"tag-crashes-outmotorsport","22":"tag-driver-market","23":"tag-eastern-asia","24":"tag-engine-customer","25":"tag-f1","26":"tag-fernando-alonso","27":"tag-final-grand-prix","28":"tag-formula-1","29":"tag-formula1","30":"tag-getty-images-inc","31":"tag-grand-prix","32":"tag-grand-prix-campaign","33":"tag-guenther-steiner","34":"tag-home-grand-prix","35":"tag-interesting-time","36":"tag-japan","37":"tag-japanese-brand","38":"tag-juan-manuel-fangio","39":"tag-junior-squad","40":"tag-lap-point","41":"tag-liberty-media-corporation","42":"tag-luigi-fagioli","43":"tag-marc-marquez","44":"tag-massimo-rivola","45":"tag-max-verstappen","46":"tag-merc-bid","47":"tag-motorsport-career","48":"tag-one-year-career-extension","49":"tag-pit-talk","50":"tag-qatar","51":"tag-sale-talks","52":"tag-scorches-practice","53":"tag-season-opening-australian","54":"tag-seen-employees-move","55":"tag-silly-season","56":"tag-singapore","57":"tag-south-eastern-asia","58":"tag-sports","59":"tag-surprise-appearance","60":"tag-surprise-paddock-appearance","61":"tag-team-boss","62":"tag-team-manager","63":"tag-team-principal","64":"tag-unfair-sporting-advantage","65":"tag-western-asia","66":"tag-world-champion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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