The Ferrari senior management attempted to determine Christian Horner to leave Red Bull at the end of the year and become the new Maranello team principal, according to several reports in the last few days.
Ferrari chairman John Elkann has been on the lookout for a new team boss ever since last year, which has eventually made Mattia Binotto hand in his resignation after a 2022 Formula 1 season in which Ferrari started in a promising manner, with two race wins after the first three rounds of the championship. Unfortunately, the Italian side was not able to build on the positive start and couldn’t mount a meaningful title challenge against Red Bull this season and the outgoing chief felt he no longer had the full faith of John Elkann and Ferrari chief executive officer Benedetto Vigna.
In the end, the senior management chose Frederic Vasseur as the new man in charge of the Formula 1 Racing Division, joining from Alfa Romeo Sauber. However, the French manager was not the only name taken into consideration for the role of team principal and one of them was in fact Christian Horner, who defeated Mercedes to the Drivers’ title in 2021 and blew away all competition this year, as Red Bull easily secured both titles.
It seems that Frederic Vasseur was not the first option for John Elkann, despite the fact that the Ferrari chairman had signed a pre-contract agreement with the Frenchman since the summer. As a result, Ferrari made an offer to Christian Horner, hoping to convince him to leave Red Bull and join a long-term project in Maranello, with executive chairman John Elkann pushing for a more high-profile figure in charge of the Formula 1 Racing Division after Mattia Binotto. On the other hand, CEO Benedetto Vigna is believed to have wanted Fred Vasseur from the beginning.
In any case, Christian Horner did not want to proceed with discussions regarding a possible move to Maranello. The British former racing driver is both the youngest and the longest serving team principal on the grid, having been at the top of Red Bull’s management since the Austrian F1 team was created almost two decades ago and it is clear that he is not interested in a change of scenery at this stage of his career.
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Explaining why the Ferrari offer was turned down by Christian Horner, a source told the British media: “There is too much politics below the surface at Ferrari. Too many egos. If someone starts succeeding, someone else pulls him down.”
The politics were also one of the key reasons that led to Mattia Binotto leaving Scuderia Ferrari after almost three decades of working for the Maranello team and he is not the first Ferrari team boss to be put in such a difficult situation, as confirmed by Stefano Domenicali a few weeks ago. Frederic Vasseur now faces the difficult task of having to bring Ferrari back on top and avoid the same fate as his predecessors.
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