In the wake of Christian Horner’s sudden sacking from his long held Team Principal role at Red Bull Racing, questions of his future in F1 have been raised, with a potential partnership with Briatore rumoured.
Following his sacking from Red Bull Racing in July, Christian Horner officially left the team last week. As his twenty year stint with the team comes to a close following 2024 misconduct allegations, questions as to Horner’s future in the sport have been widespread. It is widely believed that the terms of his Red Bull exit allow him to pursue a role elsewhere.
One hotly discussed possibility centers around rumours of a role at Alpine. The rumours claim Horner is set to join the French marque alongside Flavio Briatore. As reported by PlanetF1, former Renault driver Giancarlo Fisichella added fuel to the fire of the rumours. The Italian believes Briatore and Christian Horner’s F1 future could prove promising for the struggling Alpine team.
“I think Horner can come back to F1.” Fisichella claimed. “He was a driver first of all and then he was Red Bull’s team principal for 20 years and he won everything. For sure, one of the best team principals in the sport. Maybe a mix of Horner and Briatore could be a good compromise!”
Fisichella continued to share his support for Briatore, alongside whom he helped secure two Constructors Championships with Renault.
“I think Briatore is the man.” He shared. “I worked with him for many years and we were able to win two Constructors’ and two Drivers’ Championships.”
“Flavio is the right man. I’m quite positive for him and Alpine. It’s nice to have different personalities on the grid. Toto Wolff is a fantastic team principal. Also Zak Brown. For Alpine, I feel Briatore is the right man.”
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff also discussed Horner’s potential return to the F1 paddock. Having competed closely with the former Red Bull man throughout both team’s successes, Wolff cited the idea as “an exciting story.”
Despite this, Wolff, who has clashed with Horner on many occasions, likened the potential partnership to the Mafia.
“[It] would create lots of buzz around Formula 1.” Wolff commented ahead of the Dutch GP. “I think we need that. Formula 1 has always been about the best racing, with exciting drivers and great personalities.
“And I feel that, when you look back at the grand era of team owners and team principals around Frank Williams and Ron Dennis, Flavio, [Luca di] Montezemolo and a few others, that maybe we need to work on that.
“If there was such an exciting project, these three guys coming together, all of the mafia reunited, that will give good content, I guess.”
Despite the widespread rumours linking Horner to Alpine, Briatore himself denied it. Another former F1 team principal in Guenther Steiner also dashed the idea of a move to Alpine. Steiner believes opportunities in line with Horner’s ambitions are off the cards currently. He also called into question a potential partnership with Briatore.
“I think he will wait a little bit. He’s eager to get there, but, at the moment, I don’t think there’s anything there for him that he wants to do,” Steiner told the Red Flags Podcast. “I think he wants to be part of a team owning, and I don’t think there’s anything for sale or to be headed at, even if you want to buy it, I mean, it’s a lot of money.
“I know he got a lot of money, but what he got is not enough to buy a team. He would not do anything other than being a team principal, even going to Alpine to work with Flavio.
“I mean that would not work, Flav and him in the top position. I mean, then Flavio would need to go, and it doesn’t look like Flav is going anywhere soon. He can wait. Christian doesn’t need to be in a hurry.”
