Christian Horner sees F1 return route shut down as wait for paddock return hits one year

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Christian Horner is free to return to the F1 paddock one year on from being sacked by Red Bull, but BYD will not be his route as Stella Li has confirmed “there is no project”.

Red Bull sacked Horner mere days after the 2025 British Grand Prix, as their parent company felt it was time to part with their leader from the previous 20 years amid an internal fight for power and worsening results. They eventually finalised Horner’s departure in September, as his contract to be the team principal and CEO in Milton Keynes was set to run through 2030.

Teams up and down the F1 paddock have seen Horner’s name be linked with theirs over the last 12 months. Yet the 52-year-old remains on the market, even though his gardening leave period concluded in May, and his options to find a new home in Formula 1 keep diminishing.

How should Red Bull have handled Christian Horner’s sacking? 🤔

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BYD executive vice president Stella Li confirms ‘there is no project’ to enter F1

Aston Martin retain an interest in hiring Horner to head up their beleaguered efforts, having endured a woeful start to the 2026 regulations era on which they had pinned their hopes. A move to head up BYD’s possible F1 entry has also been suggested as an option for Horner.

READ MORE: Who is Christian Horner? Everything to know from Red Bull past to net worth

Reports have often suggested that Chinese automotive giant BYD are exploring a potential F1 entry that Horner could oversee, although it could delay his return to the paddock by up to five years. But executive vice president Li denies claims that BYD are looking to enter F1.

“No, there is no project,” Li told SoyMotor. “I said there is no project in mind. The dream is always there, but we do not have a concrete agenda.”

Li’s special advisor Alfredo Altavilla also stresses that BYD’s interest in joining Formula 1 has foundations in the technological side, rather than purely for marketing. So, BYD would only progress their talks with F1 if the company’s battery technologies could form a partnership.

Altavilla added: “We are not participating in the discussion about the new rules for 2030. I think Stella has been very clear about this. We only consider Formula 1 to the extent that our technology can serve the purposes of Formula 1.

“We will never participate in Formula 1 just to put a sticker on the side of a car. There are better ways to invest that money. If we can find a way to become technology partners with Formula 1, we might be interested. But that’s a prerequisite.”

How many years would it take Christian Horner to win races with BYD?

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BYD are one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of electric vehicles today, but it remains to be seen what role battery technologies will have in F1’s future engine formula given that FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is once again looking to reintroduce V8 engines in 2030.

Ben Sulayem also hopes to have “minimal electrification” in the F1 power unit formula from 2030 or 2031, having seen the failures of this year’s move to a near 50/50 split. F1 will move to a 58/42 split favouring the internal combustion engine in 2027 and then to 60/40 in 2028.

Should F1 elect to further reduce the battery’s role in the engine formula for the next cycle from 2030 or 2031, what interest BYD would retain in joining Formula 1 would remain to be seen. And with no active project on the way, Horner’s return to the F1 paddock in charge of BYD appears to be a non-starter. So, it still remains to be seen who Horner will return with.