Ex-Red Bull boss Christian Horner has discussed a future Formula 1 return with Chinese electric manufacturer BYD, which is exploring options for entering the sport in some capacity in the future, sources told ESPN.
Ahead of an appearance at last weekend’s Monaco Formula E race, Horner was spotted at the Cannes Film Festival with BYD’s executive vice president Stella Li.
Horner, sacked by Red Bull last July after 20 years in charge of the team, has been assessing his options for an F1 comeback for a while.
He is already part of a consortium trying to buy Otro Capital’s 24% stake in Alpine, although that bid faces strong competition from a Mercedes bid which is thought within the paddock to be more likely to get the green light.
BYD could offer Horner a different route back in.
Sources have confirmed Li and other BYD officials met with Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali during the Chinese Grand Prix weekend in March to discuss the company’s interest in the sport.
F1 welcomed the start-up Cadillac outfit as an 11th team this year but the sport has the capacity to add a 12th.
However, despite the Shanghai talks, BYD do not appear to ready to launch a serious bid any time soon, although discussions with a figure such as Horner might well help accelerate any plan to do so.
Sources have told ESPN that Horner met with Li in Cannes -- the pair even posed for photos together -- and discussed what a potential F1 partnership between them might look like.
While BYD seems to be a way off making any kind of commitment to F1, sources have told ESPN that both parties think there is real potential to move forward together should plans continue from here.
The timing of Horner’s meeting with Li is no surprise.
As per the terms of his $100 million exit settlement with Red Bull last year, he had to stay on the sidelines until this month, meaning Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix was theoretically the first he could have arrived at in the employment of another team.
However, that return appears to be a way off at the moment, with few other viable options appearing open to him currently.
Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll told team employees last November that Horner would not be joining the team in any capacity.
Horner, who oversaw seven drivers’ and eight constructors’ championship wins in his Red Bull tenure has previously stated that he believes he has “unfinished business” in F1, although he is being careful about how he comes back.
Speaking last year, he said: “I am not going to come back for just anything. I am only going to come back for something that can win.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff recently suggested it would be difficult for his old foe Horner to find willing F1 partners in the sport because of the amount of “broken glass” he left from his first tenure.
As for BYD, its own prospects of entering Formula 1 might be slightly murkier now than even a few months ago, given the sport now appears to be leaning towards a future move away from electrification and back towards V8 turbos by the end of this decade and the current rules cycle.
The talk about V8s returning has come amid a wave of negativity about the sport’s current engines.
F1’s new rules cycle, which started this year, has shifted the sport towards battery power more than ever before, with new V6 hybrids featuring a near-50/50 split between conventional combustion power and electrical battery elements.
Those new engines have been hugely controversial and unpopular with drivers and fans alike given the excessive amount of battery harvesting now required in qualifying and races.
F1 has already started moving away from the 50/50 split, with rule tweaks made ahead of Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix shifting the split back closer towards a 60/40 split in favour of conventional combustion power.
Senior paddock sources in Formula 1 have told ESPN it is likely the sport will shift that scale further away from electrification in the coming years, given how unpopular the new formula has been.
