Christian Horner instructed the way to spend his cash amid F1 return discuss – ‘he’d destroy it’
A former Formula One racer has admitted he doesn’t see a return to the sport for Christian Horner and advised the ex-Red Bull chief to stay away
Christian Horner has been told how to spend his money despite F1 return talks(Image: PA)
Former Formula One driver Christian Danner has admitted he doesn’t see a way for Christian Horner to return to the sport.
Horner, 52, was sacked by Red Bull last year and received a multi-million-pound compensation package of between £75million and £80m. Horner actually negotiated a lower package than the £100m he would have been owed for the remainder of his contract to secure a faster departure and set up a return to the F1 paddock.
Serving as the Red Bull team principal for 20 years, Horner is a huge name in the sport and has been linked with a possible return to the paddock with Aston Martin, among other teams, where he could link back up with his former chief technical officer, Adrian Newey.
Christian Horner is eyeing a return to the F1 grid(Image: Getty Images)
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However, Danner has admitted he doesn’t see a current path for Horner back into the sport. Speaking to OLBG, the 68-year-old said: “I don’t think he will return (to a top team), no, I don’t think so.
“If you say McLaren, he’s going to destroy the structure they’ve got. If he’s going to go to Ferrari, I don’t think Fred’s going to have him because Fred is going to stay either as the boss or he’s not going to stay. Then he changes everything to make it different and complicated? No.
“Mercedes? They really don’t need him at all. Well, maybe they fire Vowles at Williams, but do you want to do that? Anything’s possible, but to jump aboard a fast ship is difficult.
Christian Horner has been spotted in racing paddocks this year(Image: Gold & Goose Photography, Getty Images)
“What does he do instead? Spend his money and have a good time. It’s what I would do! There is no reason to officially retire. To have a very good time in your life, I’m not against it. But at the moment, I would say it’s not very likely he will come back. If he does have a comeback, I’d be very happy because I like him.
“It is a possibility that he actually goes to Aston Martin. If a driver is good or bad, makes mistakes, and so forth, you can say, ‘I think he’s not going to make it much longer in the team’.
“If the chief designer keeps designing stupid cars, you can say the cars are too slow. But what can you say about Horner? What is he going to do? Is he going to introduce a Red Bull feeling? I don’t think so.
“It all kind of grew within an environment with Helmut Marko, with Dietrich still being in charge, with Adrian still being his usual genius, and so forth. So is Christian going to make the difference?
“With Wheatley running the operations and everything at Red Bull, it was fine. Yes, he orchestrated it very well, but is that going to be just as fine at Aston? I don’t know.
Christian Horner and Adrian Newey worked together at Red Bull but didn’t always see eye to eye(Image: Getty)
“I like Christian. I think, at the end of the day, he’s a personable lad. He’s an ex-driver, and he had his ups and downs. I would be happy to see him. But can I give it a chance? No. It’s too complicated.”
Danner added that while Horner and Newey worked together well at Red Bull, the former German racer can’t see it working in a different environment at Aston Martin.
He continued: “Well, what was the relationship? It would work, of course, because they weren’t interfering very much within their day-to-day work.
“Adrian was on his drawing board most of the time, studying the numbers from the wind tunnel and going in and out, and Horner was doing the rest and trying to run the rest of the show.
“So, clearly, having gone through all that success, it’s a match. They get on. There’s no reason why they should not somewhere else, for example Aston Martin.
“But is Horner going to make the difference? Well, now, with Mike Krack and Newey, it’s all kind of a bit different. And then Lawrence… I don’t know.
“I’m lacking parameters. With drivers, you have a lot of parameters that give you a chance to judge them. But what are the parameters with Horner? I don’t see these parameters.”
