(Motorsport-Total.com) – Around nine months after the dismissal of team boss Christian Horner at Red Bull, the sporting future of the 52-year-old Briton remains unclear and completely open. This is because speculation about a possible entry into Alpine’s Formula 1 team has also calmed down again.
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McLaren boss Zak Brown, who was actually one of the biggest adversaries of the long-serving Red Bull team boss, nevertheless believes in Horner’s timely return to Formula 1. “Christian was a great personality for the sport,” says the American appreciatively. “Sport always has great personalities, they come and go.”
“It would be great to have Christian back in the sport. He’s a great doer. His track record speaks for itself,” Brown adds. “I’d rather have ten weak team principals, but that’s not going to happen in the near future, and there’s always an enormous amount of talent coming through.”
“In the last two to three years, there have been many changes in the team principal position here, but it would be great to have him back in the sport, and given his passion for the sport and his age, I would be shocked if he wasn’t back in the sport, whether at Alpine or somewhere else.”
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With long-time Verstappen engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, who will also leave Red Bull after the 2027 season, McLaren has secured an important reinforcement: Lambiase will serve as Chief Racing Officer at McLaren and report to team principal Andrea Stella.
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Spectacular Team Principal Changes in Formula 1
“On the racing operations side, Andrea actually has three jobs: He is team principal, he runs the racing business, and he also plays a big role in a kind of technical director function, obviously,” explains the McLaren boss about the current team structure.
“Andrea is, so to speak, the link that holds everything together. The role of team principal has evolved over the years, and just as most teams today have a CEO and a team principal, the role of team principal continues to evolve.”
“These teams are so big that you have to be excellent in all these roles,” Brown knows. “Andrea is certainly capable of handling two tasks. Entrusting him with three tasks is a big challenge. So GP will play an important role.”
“And my job is always to look ahead and see who can develop in the sport. Given his experience and age, I think he is someone who can stay with McLaren for a long time and develop further.”
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