On Tuesday, there were reports that the former Red Bull team principal, who was dismissed last July after a 20-year spell marked by extraordinary success, is seeking to acquire a minority stake in the French outfit with the backing of investors. However, GPblog understands that there have been no developments on that front.

Horner is understood to have set his sights on the 24% stake currently held by Otro Capital, a US-based private investment firm founded in 2022 that focuses on sports, media, entertainment and consumer-facing assets, and counts several high-profile figures from those sectors among its investors.

Other investors included RedBird Capital Partners and Maximum Effort Investments, the latter linked to US actor Ryan Reynolds, in a deal that valued the French team at around $900 million in June 2023.

It is no secret that the Briton is eager to return to Formula 1, ideally in a shareholder role similar to Toto Wolff’s at Mercedes, where he controls around 28% of the team after selling his 15% stake to CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz.

By joining Alpine, Horner hopes to get what he is looking for, securing a position of greater authority than the one he held at Red Bull. At the same time, however, he would be taking on a quite steep uphill challenge.

Since its rebrand as Alpine in 2021, the French outfit has never truly shown it can consistently compete with Formula 1’s established heavyweights. The situation has worsened further this season, with the team finishing last in the constructors’ championship and fielding a car that was clearly off the pace, despite the technical convergence expected in the final year of the outgoing regulation cycle.

In recent years, Alpine have been remembered more for the many — perhaps too many — departures and leadership changes at the top than for their on-track results, which have largely consisted of sporadic flashes driven by unpredictable and hard-to-repeat circumstances, such as Esteban Ocon’s victory in Hungary in 2021 and last year’s double podium in Brazil.

On top of all that comes another major unknown, one that on paper should allow the team to make a significant step forward but has also sparked considerable internal unrest. The reference, of course, is to Alpine’s decision to abandon Renault power units — produced at the historic Viry-Châtillon facility — in favour of Mercedes engines from next season, which on paper are shaping up to be the strongest power unit of the field.

In such a climate of uncertainty, if there is anyone capable of overcoming adversity in a relatively short space of time and leading a team to success, it is surely Horner — as Red Bull’s history over the past 20 years clearly shows.

After arriving in Milton Keynes in 2005, alongside other key figures such as Adrian Newey and Helmut Marko, the Briton needed four years before the benefits of his leadership began to translate into tangible results. That foundation then paved the way for Red Bull’s first era of dominance from 2010 to 2013, followed by another golden cycle between 2021 and 2024.

At 52, Horner clearly still has plenty of time to put together a long-term project, even if that means playing the long game and accepting a more defensive approach in the early years. What could work in his favour is the scale of the upcoming regulation overhaul, which could give Alpine a genuine opportunity to line up at the start of next season with the gap effectively reset after years of falling behind.

Bringing in someone like Horner is widely associated with success, but it would also inevitably reshape the internal balance of power. The Briton has proved to have a tendency in centralising decision-making, a model that delivered results at Red Bull but also reduced internal autonomy — and one that ultimately prompted a clear philosophical shift with the appointment of Laurent Mekies.