Christian Horner ready for F1 return, by launching his own team

Christian Horner is now finally free from Red Bull and he has unfinished business to attend to in Formula 1.

Having been axed as team principal in July, it was only announced on Monday that his official employment with the team had come to an end after a rather large payout that is big enough to probably cover the bills over the next few months.

Horner is ready for a return. But if he does still have a place in F1 where is it? You can have your say in our GPFans poll at the bottom of this page but for now, let's go through our options. Red Bull and Racing Bulls of course are non-starters.

Ferrari would have been the most fun. Lewis Hamilton and Horner? What a spectacle that could have been... but team boss Fred Vasseur has signed a new deal, so next.

McLaren are doing quite nicely without him (if a little boring), Mercedes already have his arch nemesis Toto Wolff and while Aston Martin have the team boss role fit for him, there is a reason design guru Adrian Newey left Red Bull in the first place. So next.

Williams and Haas are steadily progressing, Sauber have their ducks in a row before becoming Audi, and Cadillac need stability before bringing in big dogs ahead of their 2026 debut.

Which F1 team will Christian Horner join?

That of course leaves one team - and that's Alpine.

That's a problem because with all due respect to Alpine (genuinely) is there a more soulless team in F1 right now?

This is a team with strong world championship pedigree, but nowadays are sat at the back of the grid with seemingly no plan, no ambition and quite frankly no hope of doing anything in the near future.

On the driver front you have the solid and dependable Pierre Gasly... and not much else. The only reason to have even an eye on Alpine is because of the flamboyant but perhaps madcap boss Flavio Briatore - and even then it's not saving their dullness.

Now before you get ahead of yourself dear reader, I'm not suggesting Christian Horner alone comes along in blue MAGA caps to make Alpine great again as their new team principal (although I will confess I would love to see that for the sheer s***housery of it all).

Plan B, Horner makes his own racing team

But we are close to that. What 'should' happen is that Horner comes in as team principal and that the whole team becomes Horner F1 Racing.

Wait! Don't stop reading - hear me out! I'm going all in on this. Imagine a team in the paddock all unironically wearing Horner F1 team merch - even having his face plastered everywhere.

The team could sign the most controversial drivers and become one of the most talked about teams in the paddock - of course with the caveat that they have to be good first.

And under Horner that is possible. Like him or loathe him, his record of multiple world titles is a worthy flex. He is a team boss very good at bringing success.

Does F1 need Christian Horner?

Honestly, answer yourself this. Do you prefer 'Make-up-the-numbers Alpine' or a proper ambitious Horner F1 team?

A simple scenario to help out. Would you rather see your favourite driver/team simply win the world championship, or do you think you would gain greater satisfaction seeing them win while defeating your natural disliked team on the grid in a close battle. We've already had a flavour of this in 2021 - and whatever you may think of that season, it will be one of the most memorable and talked about F1 stories forever.

I'm not saying we have to 'like' Horner F1 Racing by the way. Good stories have well developed protagonist characters but they too need antagonistic aspects to play off.

Also for avoidance of doubt, I'm not even saying you have to dislike a Christian Horner team. But this is more of an appeal to fans who for whatever reason do not want Horner back in F1 that there is something here even for them in a sporting context.

Now, how does this whole operation work? Well that's obviously a sticking point but the motives are there. Horner gets a team he can't be sacked from and one he can proudly call his own, Alpine/Renault get a decent fee for a team they seem to have lost focus and drive in - and the team itself gets a much needed life injection to start challenging again just like they did in the mid-1990s with Michael Schumacher and the mid-2000s with Fernando Alonso.

So it's time for a Horner fronted consortium to bulldoze down the doors of Alpine and start a comeback. F1 thrives on drama. Alpine are not bringing it and a largely antagonistic Horner team will.

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