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Christian Horner has been tipped to return to F1 after his shock departure from Red Bull last month but only if one condition is met.
Horner was relieved of his duties as Red Bull F1 CEO and team principal in July after 20 years at the helm, during which time he led the team to six constructors’ and eight drivers’ titles.
The departure brought to an end a tumultuous 18 months for the team, with a divide forming within the management structure despite Max Verstappen claiming his fourth drivers’ championship last year.
Long-term Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko recently confirmed Horner’s dismissal was due to under-performance, with the formerly dominant team languishing in fourth place in the constructors’ standings.
Speculation has been rife as to what the 51-year-old Englishman’s next move will be and he has been linked with a move to Ferrari down the years.
Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who is known to be close to Horner, has revealed that the manner of the departure caught him out and that a return to the sport could happen but only on the proviso that he could own part of a team – a set-up that Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has but Horner never got at Red Bull.
Ecclestone told Sky Sports: “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.”
Horner was replaced at Red Bull by Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies, who took over his dual role as chief executive and team principal.
The Englishman had a frosty relationship with some of the other F1 team bosses, most notably Zak Brown at McLaren, and Brown has claimed that relations between the two outfits will be better now Mekies is in charge.
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.”
