The Briton says he will only come back to a team with title ambitions
\n LONDON
\nChristian Horner stepped back inside the Formula One paddock on Sunday for the first time since he was sacked as Red Bull team boss a year ago and said a full return would depend on whether he could be \u200ca winner again.
\nThe Briton, who was replaced by Frenchman Laurent Mekieson July 9 last year, was invited back to the British Grand Prix by the president of the governing FIA Mohammed Ben Sulayem and Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali.
\nHorner ran Red Bull for 20 years, during which time they won eight drivers\u2019 world championships \u2014 four with Sebastian Vettel and four with Max Verstappen \u2014 and six constructors\u2019 titles.
\nThe 52-year-old was also in the headlines in 2024 after a female employee accused him of inappropriate behaviour, of which he was cleared after an investigation.
\nMarried to Spice Girls singer Geri Halliwell, Horner was also a prominent figure in the Netflix docu-series Drive to Survive where he had a fierce rivalry with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
\nHorner, who sounded relaxed when he chatted briefly to reporters in the FIA hospitality at Silverstone, told.
\nThe Times newspaper in a first interview since his departure that he bore no ill feeling towards anyone.
\nHe said his period of \u2018gardening leave\u2019, preventing him from working for \u200cany other team, had expired and he was now a free agent.
\n\u201cI have no interest in just being a number in a machine, I\u2019ve more than demonstrated what I\u2019m capable of doing, and if I go back it would only be in a position where you were empowered to make a change, to drive difference, to win,\u201d Horner said.
\n\u201cI know that I would become very frustrated, very quickly doing anything else. If you can\u2019t do it to win, why bother?\u201d
\nHorner has been linked to several teams, notably Renault-owned Alpine and Aston Martin, in media speculation and he said it was inevitable that conversations happened but he did not feel he had to return.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve missed the competition a little bit, I haven\u2019t missed the politics and the bullshit side of things,\u201d he added.
\n\u201cI\u2019d only come back for the right thing, because at the end of the day I want to win and I want to be with winners. There\u2019s no point in just to come back for the sake of a job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Briton says he will only come back to a team with title ambitions LONDON Christian Horner stepped back inside the Formula One paddock on Sunday for the first time since he was sacked as Red Bull team boss a year ago and said a full return would depend on whether he could be \u200ca […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-554795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n