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<\/p>\nChristian Horner is set to return to Formula 1, according to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who hinted the Englishman\u2019s comeback plans are already fixed.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Austrian parent company grew wary of the power he had amassed over two decades as chief executive.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship\u2122 LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n The 52-year-old made his first paddock appearance since the dismissal at the weekend\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n The FIA president later told media that he would like to see Horner back working in Formula 1 \u2014 and he suggested plans were already in place for the Englishman\u2019s comeback.<\/p>\n \u201cHe will get back,\u201d he said, per ESPN. \u201cWhere is not for me to say \u2014 even if I know. It is for him to say.\u201d<\/p>\n Horner has been linked to multiple teams, but his most likely options<\/a> 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\u2019s held talks about a prospective new entry, which Ben Sulayem has also backed.<\/p>\n Speaking to Sky Sports on the Silverstone grid, Horner wouldn\u2019t be drawn on his most likely destination but said he would \u201conly look at doing the right thing, something that really had an opportunity to win\u201d.<\/p>\n He has previously also stipulated that he would want to come back as \u201ca partner rather than just a hired hand\u201d.<\/p>\n Despite running Red Bull Racing for 20 years, Horner was never a shareholder in the team, which left him exposed to his surprise dismissal.<\/p>\n PIT TALK PODCAST: Charles Leclerc is the second non-Mercedes winner of the season after claiming victory at the British Grand Prix, and after another scoreless grand prix for title leader Kimi Antonelli, could unreliability cost Mercedes the championship? | Listen to <\/a>Pit Talk<\/a> here ><\/a><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Combined with the Red Bull board\u2019s growing discomfort with Horner\u2019s personal power and the team\u2019s slumping results in 2024 and early 2025 \u2014 allied to some bizarre contract calls on Sergio P\u00e9rez and Liam Lawson \u2014 it was enough to pull the trigger.<\/p>\n Ben Sulayem argued, however, that Horner\u2019s career results were the only things that mattered.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou 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?<\/p>\n \u201cThere are behaviours, and bad behaviours, and if you do bad behaviour, it will catch on you and nobody will want you.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it is about results \u2014 you bring someone, you pay him millions to get results.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course he shouldn\u2019t go and kill someone, or drink and driving \u2014 that is bad behaviour, but I said certain behaviours.\u201d<\/p>\n Horner said he was in \u201cno rush\u201d to rejoin the sport.<\/p>\n ‘F*** THIS’ Verstappen rages after crash | 01:09<\/p>\n NORRIS TORCHES RUSSELL OVER GRANDSTAND CLAIM<\/p>\n Lando Norris says he has \u201cmore passionate fans\u201d than George Russell as his Mercedes compatriot contemplates setting up his own grandstand at next year\u2019s British Grand Prix.<\/p>\n Silverstone organisers debuted the \u2018Landostand\u2019 at last year\u2019s grand prix at the outside of Stowe, the 240-kilometre-per-hour right-hander near the end of the lap.<\/p>\n Its success, combined with Norris\u2019s maiden championship, triggered the circuit to considerably expand the stand for this season. Spectators also received T-shirts in Norris\u2019s fluoro yellow, ensuring their section of the circuit was unmissable in television pictures.<\/p>\n Four-day tickets to the stand sold for \u00a3569 (A$1100) a pop.<\/p>\n Norris is the only British driver with a Silverstone grandstand named after him, though the pit straight was named in Lewis Hamilton\u2019s honour at the end of 2020.<\/p>\n As the next highest profile British driver, Russell revealed he was considering setting up his own grandstand.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like it, to be honest,\u201d he said, per ESPN. \u201cIt\u2019s something we\u2019ve spoken about with the team in the past. It\u2019s probably something we\u2019re working towards for next year.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere I\u2019d like to put it? Lando\u2019s got quite a good spot on the outside of Stowe, so I\u2019ll try and steal it off him!\u201d<\/p>\n Having had Russell\u2019s assertion put to him, Norris suggested his stand was an organic creation that his compatriot would struggle to match.<\/p>\n \u201cGood luck,\u201d Norris smiled. \u201cHe can do whatever he wants. I just have I think more passionate fans and a better fan base.<\/p>\n \u201cMine was more wanted from a public point of view, which is a great thing.<\/p>\n \u201cEven in my grandstand there\u2019s a good mix of all fans. It\u2019s not just simply fans who are here to support me. It\u2019s my grandstand, but at the same time it\u2019s full of, sadly, some other teams and also other drivers, which I\u2019ve got nothing against.<\/p>\n \u201cHe can do whatever he wants, but he\u2019s certainly not taking any of my seats.\u201d<\/p>\n Russell stood on the Silverstone podium for the first time at the weekend after finishing second behind winner Charles Leclerc.<\/p>\n Leclerc wins amidst safety car confusion | 03:32<\/p>\n FERRARI IN SPANISH GRAND PRIX COUP<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s exhibition centre near the airport.<\/p>\n The circuit was recently completed, though construction continues on the track infrastructure, including grandstands.<\/p>\n The track\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n But in what could be a decisive move, Ferrari will conduct a so-called \u2018promotional event\u2019 to earn itself an exclusive first look at the track.<\/p>\n Promotional events \u2014 more commonly described as filming days \u2014 are tightly regulated opportunities for teams to put their current Formula 1 cars on track at a time in-season testing is otherwise banned.<\/p>\n Cars are limited to 200 kilometres and must be fitted with special demonstration tyres supplied by Pirelli.<\/p>\n Teams are limited to two filming days per year. Ferrari already used one of its allocation in Monza in April.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n However, teams are banned from running older-spec F1 cars at the Madring \u2014 and any other new circuit \u2014 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.<\/p>\n Teams are also prevented from testing old cars on established circuits within a 60-day period prior to the start of the race weekend.<\/p>\n Madrid is contract to host the Spanish Grand Prix until at least 2035.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christian Horner is set to return to Formula 1, according to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who hinted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-786273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786273","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=786273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}