Former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner is still in “shock” over his sudden sacking by the team after last month’s British Grand Prix.

That is the claim of former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who believes Horner “probably doesn’t want to” return to F1 unless he can find a partner to help him buy a team.

Will Christian Horner return to F1 after Red Bull exit?

Horner was sacked by Red Bull in the aftermath of the British Grand Prix with Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies promoted as his replacement as chief executive and team principal.

Horner spent more than two decades in charge of Red Bull having been appointed team principal ahead of the team’s debut season in 2005.

PlanetF1.com reported earlier this year that the 51-year-old, who led Red Bull to six Constructors’ and eight Drivers’ titles split evenly between Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, had been approached by Ferrari prior to his exit.

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However, the team confirmed at last week’s Hungarian Grand Prix that Fred Vasseur has signed a new multi-year contract, ending Horner’s hopes of a swift return to F1 with the Scuderia.

It has been speculated that Horner could seek to return to Formula 1 at some point in a team ownership capacity, potentially in a similar role to his rival Toto Wolff, team boss and one-third owner of the Mercedes squad.

Ecclestone, who has a close relationship with Horner, has revealed that he has “made it known” to people at Red Bull that the team’s handling of the team principal’s exit was “a little bit ruthless.”

And he reckons Horner may opt against an F1 comeback unless he can do so on his terms.

Ecclestone told Sky F1: “At the moment, I think it’s still a bit of a shock for him.

“So he will gradually get over this and realise there are other things in the world to do and he’ll get on and do them.

“I have made it known to friends there [Red Bull] that maybe it was a little bit ruthless, to do it in the way that they did it, but they didn’t have much choice.

“They decided this was what they were going to do and they had to get on and do it.

“I don’t know how or where or whether he wants to [come back to F1].

“He probably doesn’t want to because the position he really wanted at Red Bull was to own part of the team.

“Unless he gets somebody to put the money up to buy a team, I can’t see it happening.”

Ecclestone’s comments come after Zak Brown, the McLaren chief executive, claimed that relations between teams will be “healthier” with Mekies now in charge of Red Bull.

He said: “I’m happy Laurent’s in the role he is in.

“I like Laurent, that’ll be healthy and maybe we can get back to focusing on competition on the track.

“There’s always going to be some political aspects to the sport, but I think it is going to be healthier with Laurent.

“I’m a fan of Laurent. I have known him for a long time, and it’ll be good to go racing against him.

“It went too far [previously].

“There’s always going to be politicking in F1 – let’s try and shut down their flexi-wings and that stuff – but when you start getting into frivolous allegations, that’s just going too far.

“If I look up and down the pit lane now, I see us fighting each other hard politically, but the line is not being crossed. And that line got crossed before.

“I think that we’ll see a little bit of a change for the better.

“There’s a higher level of trust that now, if we sit down and have a conversation on a topic where we think there could be some confidentiality and it’s just not an automatic [response of saying]: ‘I’m going to use that as a political weapon.’

“We’re going to be in a better place, a little bit more unified, and a little bit more trusting that while we’re fighting on track, we can have a conversation about what’s good for the sport off it.

“And that won’t get manipulated for political reasons and taken out of context.”

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