Christian Horner's public statement that he would abandon his desire for equity ownership in a Formula 1 team if Ferrari came calling is a clear sign he has shifted his efforts away from buying into a team and towards getting the Scuderia leadership to notice him, according to F1 correspondent Daniel Moxon.
Moxon, who has interviewed Horner one-on-one multiple times and attended many media sessions with the former Red Bull boss, says Horner never says anything without considering the impact of his words and what he might get out of them. He describes Horner as a shrewd operator, "nobody's fool," and as astute as any seen in F1 for decades.
Shrewd operator's tactics
Moxon notes that Horner has a book coming out soon, and there is every chance he is simply drumming up interest. The word is that he is particularly scathing about Helmut Marko and several other former Red Bull colleagues, including sections on Adrian Newey and Max Verstappen's father, Jos.
Still, Moxon says this comes across as close to a "come and get me" plea as you are likely to see. Horner has been approached by Ferrari before but did not want to leave Red Bull. Now that he is a free agent, nothing is stopping him from accepting this time.
Pressure on Vasseur
There has been renewed criticism of Frederic Vasseur's leadership in Italy, given Ferrari's failure to kick on from victories in Barcelona and at Silverstone before the summer break. Moxon asks if there is blood in the water, noting that sharks will smell it if there is, and in F1 terms, Horner is a great white who will show no mercy if he gets the sniff of an opportunity.
Moxon would be very surprised if Ferrari gave up on Vasseur just yet, though anything is possible next year if Ferrari do not hit the ground running at the start of the new season. After all, 2027 marks 20 years since they last had a drivers' champion, which is the prize they truly care about. Ferrari have shown before that they have an itchy trigger finger, and Horner has done Vasseur no favours by reminding the top brass at Maranello that he is as free as a bird.
Rough ride to December
Moxon also highlights the madness of modern F1's calendar, with the rest of the season including a triple header with two physically demanding stays in Asia, with Singapore coming up after the race at Sepang. There are then two more triple headers after that to finish the year, unless the Middle East rounds go ahead. If not, it is a freezing cold trip to Imola in December. In either case, Moxon calls it a bonkers way to finish a season.
From the archive, the 2021 Baku race saw both title contenders fail to score a point. Max Verstappen was on to win when, with five laps to go, his tyre failed. From the restart, Lewis Hamilton went straight on at turn one and threw away the chance to get one over his bitter rival.
After George Russell's pole on Friday, Charles Leclerc remains the only driver with more than one qualifying success in Baku, where he has been on pole four times but, remarkably, has never won. Esteban Ocon is banking on Cadillac deciding to replace Valtteri Bottas to have any realistic chance of being on the 2027 grid, with his Haas axe imminent. However, it is understood Cadillac are unlikely to make any changes to their driver line-up.
