Where will Christian Horner end up when he returns to Formula 1? What next?

I have to imagine that at his age, and the way he was unceremoniously dumped as team principal of one of the most successful Formula 1 operations of the past two decades, which he built by hand, he will not be out of the sport for too long.

There is no way I see 52-year-old Horner's ambition allowing him to stay away. I imagine him being in Formula 1 at some point soon, if not this year, maybe next season. Who knows, with things so effervescent in the paddock, with 11 teams tackling this new era with glaringly varying degrees of success.

So let’s start by eliminating where Christian Horner won’t be. He certainly will not be going back to Red Bull, so cross that one out, and by extension, do the same with Racing Bulls.

With them out of the running, let's go by the 2026 F1 Constructors’ Championship as it stands now after three rounds. At the top, we have Mercedes. No way is Horner ever going to get a role in any operation in Wolff’s empire. Take that one out of the equation.

If the Ferrari SF-26 was as bad as last year’s car, I think Christian Horner would have been at Ferrari and Fred Vasseur would have been marching. But credit to the Frenchman and his team at Maranello, they have produced two pretty handy cars, it seems, from which Fred has bought himself time as head of the Scuderia.

Next up is McLaren. No way is there a spot there in Zak Brown’s team.

Which brings us to Haas, and perhaps if Guenther Steiner was still running it in his manner, Christian Horner might have had a shot there. But with Ayao Komatsu firmly in charge of the reins, I really do not see a role there for Horner either.

Which brings us to the first possible candidate Formula 1 team. I can imagine Horner and Alpine evolving into something. Especially with Flavio Briatore at the helm, seemingly dismantling the once-great Renault operation and preparing it for a sale. I would imagine that Horner would be piqued by such a project if indeed he could become the owner or heavy-hitting shareholder.

Looking at the template that has turned modern racing enterprises into great teams, which is Mercedes. You would imagine that for Horner with Alpine, or whatever the team morphs into next, he would only accept a role of the style that Toto Wolff has with the German manufacturer.

I reckon it would not be silly to assume Horner might be part of some project involving Alpine in the future. 

Next up, Audi, one could argue, offers Horner the Wolff–Mercedes-style deal, should the Englishman be able to secure a shareholding in the team. The reality is, it does need leadership. I am highly sceptical of Mattia Binotto, given his Ferrari past, being the guy to lead this project. It has already been a revolving door of team principals for a team so young.

One wonders if Audi is among the teams Horner has spoken to. How they would insert him into a leadership role with Binotto now in charge will be interesting. But really, if you know anything about Formula 1, and you had to put money on Horner building you a winning team or Mattia Binotto, my money would be on Horner.

How likely this partnership will happen is probably the most unlikely of the likely ones.

Jokes aside, our April Fool joke suggested that James Vowles was fired and Christian Horner was to lead Williams. I will argue that it is not as preposterous as one might think. In fact, it was close enough to the truth, I gather, for people to be piqued by the idea.

Again, there is an opportunity for Horner to step into a team that really needs leadership, direction, and competitiveness. It is clear, at least to me, that Vowles is not up to the job. In fact, I would not get rid of Vowles if I was Williams. I would make him head of communications. You could not stop the guy, you would have more content than you could ever wish for.

If Dorilton Capital are serious, then I have to suggest they will be talking to Horner to find a way to inject him into the operation, if indeed they do not want to get rid of Vowles. But again, if you ask me to put money on who can take Williams into the future effectively, I would imagine most would put their money on Horner.

But the one that I think, and would really like to see happen, but probably will not, is Horner doing something with Cadillac, creating some kind of dual ownership situation with him as team principal.

And really, if Cadillac is serious, they are going to have to rethink their budgets and the kind of people they currently have on the project. How many big brains can they really attract to a team that is seriously unprepared for their first venture in Formula 1?

I would not even venture a hypothesis that if Horner had been put in charge of the project, it would have been a lot further down the road than it is now, considering they do not even have to develop an engine and have Ferrari supplying one.

If Scuderia Ferrari and Haas are anything to go by, that they are lacking one second to the midfield is an age in modern Formula 1. It is almost unprecedented in the last five to six years. Again, you cannot fault Cadillac, but rather the FIA and FOM, who came up with this slop that we are forced to watch.

And finally, we have the situation at Aston Martin, which has become something of a mess since Adrian Newey became team principal. If ever there was a man in Formula 1 who does not have the personality, the street wisdom, and the tools required to be a team principal at the level of Wolff and Horner, Newey is that man.

Having a guy like Horner at the helm adds credibility that I fear the current operation does not have, and would thus be able to attract the big brains of Formula 1.

He is the kind of guy you keep out of sight, give one interview a year, cut it into ten clips, and let him design and do what he does best.

His move into the AMR team principal role has made me question whether Lawrence Stroll really knows what he is doing with his team. The blunders since they moved into their Silverstone headquarters have been relentless.

Did this man seriously become a billionaire building a clothing empire? Because that rep is being bludgeoned. He is dropping the ball massively with his Formula 1 team.

I am not sure Horner would be the guy to save that situation. The only thing that might attract him is the money, big money, the kind that would make him subservient to the real boss, which will always be Stroll Senior.

But having said that, I am starting to wonder if Stroll’s scorched-earth talent acquisition is not merely a ploy to keep clever people away from other teams. It sounds ridiculous, but in this world of elite entitlement, maybe he thinks he knows what he is doing.

From the outside, with a bank balance most could not imagine, it might look convincing. From the sidelines, he has no clue what he is doing, allegedly, I will add, just in case.

If I were Horner, I would look at that project and think it has massive potential. But remove both Strolls from the equation, and then it becomes a serious project. 

In closing, I must add that for some reason, I miss Horner in Formula 1. His absence is like fielding a football team with one of the star players, one of the best of this era, not selected, while too many incompetents who do not deserve those spots are still there. It's a shame.

And, let's not forget a final not-so-absurd scenario for Horner, the fact that there is still a 12th Formula 1 team option according to FIA rules. Let's see what happens...