Christian Horner and Jeremy Clarkson raised £1million for Chris Hoy cancer charity, in one afternoon

Christian Horner

Christian Horner helped to raise £1million for Chris Hoy cancer charity, in one afternoon

The results were quite astonishing

Graham Shaw Consultant Editor

Digital sports specialist running global brands for 30 years

Friday 7 August 2026 08:57 Updated: 09:01

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Christian Horner and Jeremy Clarkson teamed up to raise an incredible £1million for Sir Chris Hoy's cancer charity, in one single afternoon.

Horner has been out of F1 since last summer when he was fired by Red Bull after a glorious run of success which spanned two decades.

While the 52-year-old Englishman is looking for a way back into the paddock (if the right opportunity presents itself), he has been making himself very very useful in the meantime.

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Last month he hosted a clay shooting day at his Oxfordshire estate to raise money for Hoy's Tour de 4 charity as the Olympic legend does amazing work during his fight against stage four prostate cancer.

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Horner hosts and Clarkson works magic

During the afternoon, TV presenting legend and high-profile F1 fan Clarkson ran an auction, and the results were quite astonishing.

"Jeremy Clarkson did the auction at the Tour de 4 clay shoot that Christian Horner put on, and we raised £1 million in an afternoon.

"What was astonishing was, we got to £850,000 with all the tickets and the tables and the auction, and they wanted to hit £1 million."

'I don't think anybody else would have got away with it'

It was at this point that Clarkson went into fund-raising overdrive to achieve that magical charity mark.

Hoy continued: "So Jeremy said, ‘Right, there are people here who have arrived in helicopters. Everyone here who has got a helicopter, I want ten grand.’

"So he went around the room going, ‘Ten grand from you, ten grand from you,’ and he got £150,000 from people, and that’s what made it up to £1 million.

"It was astonishing. I don’t think anybody else would have got away with doing that, but he has that presence. It was a fantastic afternoon, really good fun."

Clarkson ran the auction at Horner's charity day.

Happy Horner reflects on Hoy 'honour'

After the dust had settled on the amazing event, Horner took to social media to speak about what the whole day meant for him.

"A heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined us for this year’s Clays for a Cause," he said.

"Thanks to your incredible generosity, together we’ve raised more than £1 million in support of @OcularMelanomaUK and the charities supported by Sir Chris Hoy’s Tour de 4 – @BreastCancerNow, @cr_UK, @MacmillanCancer and @Maggiescentres

"A very special thank you to @chrishoy1. It was an honour to host this event together and your determination to make a difference continues to inspire everyone around you."

Horner also name checked some of his former F1 colleagues and counterparts after they had generously donated some of the auction prizes which raised all that money.

"I’m also hugely grateful to everyone who so generously donated auction prizes. Thank you to Toto [Wolff], Zak [Brown], Ayao [Komatsu], Flavio [Briatore] and the many other individuals and organisations whose contributions helped us raise such an incredible amount for these brilliant causes.

"Finally, thank you to every guest who attended, donated, bid so generously and embraced the spirit of the day. The support shown was extraordinary, and together we’ve created something that will make a real difference to people and families living with cancer."

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Written by

Graham Shaw - Consultant Editor

Digital sports leader with 30 years of senior level experience running global brands. Built sportinglife.com to be a behemoth in the UK as well as being in charge of the Planet Sport network of sites including planetf1.com, football365.com, teamtalk.com and planetrugby.com. Then grew goal.com to be the world's biggest soccer website in 18 languages and 37 territories. Was GM of Portals for Perform Group (now DAZN) with overall responsibility for sportingnews.com, spox.de and voetbalzone.nl.

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F1 Christian Horner