'So close' - Christian Horner opens up on F1 team purchase

Horner in a white shirt and sunglasses edited in front of an F1 car sketch background and £20 notes pile — Photo: © IMAGO

Christian Horner

'So close' - Christian Horner opens up on F1 team purchase

Horner is looking for a way back into F1

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Tuesday 3 February 2026 22:00

Former Red Bull chief Christian Horner has opened up about how close he was to purchasing another Formula 1 team.

Horner spent years as team principal at Red Bull, the energy drink company that transformed the former Jaguar outfit into six-time constructors’ champions.

However, in July 2025, Horner was dismissed after two decades leading the Milton Keynes-based team, and the Brit is now exploring a route back into Formula 1, potentially as soon as this season.

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The 2026 campaign begins on March 8 with the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, although given that Horner only left Red Bull last summer, he is expected to serve a period of gardening leave until spring 2026, which prevents a move before then.

That hasn't stopped the 52-year-old from checking out his comeback options though. The Englishman was recently linked to an attempt to return to the grid with Alpine, through a purchase of the 24 per cent stake in the team owned by Otro Capital, though he has maintained in a recent appearance that he will only come back for 'the right opportunity'.

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Horner: 'He tried to sell me the team!'

During his interview at the RDS, Horner revealed how Red Bull almost ended up owning Jordan F1 team, reflecting on his relationship with the late, great Eddie Jordan.

"When I was a young driver, when I was 16 or 17 years of age, I went to see him, and he just set up the Jordan Formula 1 team," Horner began.

"I went to see him for some advice. I had a sponsor who was supporting me, who was also supporting him. And I went into his office in the brand new factory that he’d just built at Silverstone and sat in front of him, and I said, ‘What advice would you give me?'

"He said, ‘Get a good lawyer and a good sponsor.’ It wasn’t the kind of advice that I was expecting. But then from that point onwards, he was always very supportive whenever I saw him at a racetrack."

Horner made his entrance into the F1 paddock in 2005, but as the youngest team principal the sport had ever seen instead of as a driver.

The energy drink giants found their way into the sport after buying the Jaguar team, but speaking in Dublin last week, Horner has shared how it was almost Jordan that Red Bull purchased.

"We really started talking again at the end of his time in F1, where he was looking to exit the sport, and you know, he tried to sell me the team, and Bernie Ecclestone was pushing me very hard to, to see if I could find a solution with Eddie, but it didn’t happen.

"Jordan Grand Prix very, very nearly became the Red Bull team. It was that close to happening, and in the end, the deal, Jaguar were selling, and the deal went there instead, but there were a lot of talks around that time.”

Jordan eventually sold to the Midland group the same year that Red Bull entered F1 and after changing hands multiple times since then, Aston Martin now continues the legacy of Eddie Jordan's outfit.

F1 Red Bull Christian Horner Bernie Ecclestone Eddie Jordan