{"id":110466,"date":"2026-07-05T15:26:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T15:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/horner-returns-to-f1-paddock-a-year-after-sacking-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T15:26:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T15:26:04","slug":"horner-returns-to-f1-paddock-a-year-after-sacking-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/horner-returns-to-f1-paddock-a-year-after-sacking-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Horner returns to F1 paddock a year after sacking | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n LONDON: <\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

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 winner again.<\/p>\n

The Briton, who was\u00a0replaced by Frenchman Laurent Mekies<\/a>on 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.<\/p>\n

Horner ran Red Bull for 20 years, during which time they won eight drivers’ world championships — four with Sebastian Vettel and four with Max Verstappen — \u2060and six constructors’ titles.<\/p>\n

The 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.<\/p>\n

Married 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.<\/p>\n

Horner, who sounded relaxed when he chatted briefly to reporters in the FIA hospitality at Silverstone, told The Times newspaper in a first interview since his departure that he bore no ill feeling towards anyone.<\/p>\n

He said his period of ‘gardening leave’, preventing him from working for \u200cany \u2060other team, had expired and he was now a free agent.<\/p>\n

“I have no interest in just being a number in a machine, I’ve more than demonstrated what I’m 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,” Horner \u2060said.<\/p>\n

“I know that I would become very frustrated, very quickly doing anything else. If you can’t do it to win, why bother?”<\/p>\n

Horner has been linked to several teams, notably Renault-owned Alpine and Aston Martin, in media speculation and \u2060he said it was inevitable that conversations happened but he did not feel he had to return.<\/p>\n

“I’ve missed the competition a little bit, I haven’t missed the politics and the bullshit side of things,” \u2060he added.<\/p>\n

“I’d 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’s no point in just to come back for the sake of a job.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 winner again. The Briton, who was\u00a0replaced by Frenchman Laurent Mekieson July 9 last year, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/img-86441783259339-0\/img-86441783259339-0-640x480.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t