A Ferrari future for Horner? 'Red Bull 'neighbour' F1 team emerges as lifeline'

Namely Ferrari and Alpine. The Scuderia are currently performing well below the standards set at the end of last year and team principal Frederic Vasseur's ability to lead the team out of the poor sporting performance stint has been under scrutiny.

With Horner's sudden availability could Ferrari look to the Briton as a potential candidate to replace the former Alfa Romeo boss? And if so, would Horner take up the Italian team's offer? Reports surfaced that Ferrari had reached out to the now former Red Bull Racing boss and CEO, which he ultimately ended up dismissing.

During the emergency F1 show Podcast by Sky Sports, Ted Kravitz weighed in on the situation: "If he thought he wasn't going to survive [at Red Bull], then he might have taken that [Ferrari's interest] a little bit more seriously. But with his family, with his three kids, does he really want to uproot all of them?"

"Does he want to go and live in Italy by himself? Would he want to bring the three kids out of school? Would his wife move to Italy as well?," added Kravitz highlighting the profound changes Horner would have to make in order to complete the switch to Ferrari.

Not only that, but the language and cultural barriers would also pose a 'hill too steep to climb', observes the British reporter. In his mind's eye, a switch to a 'neighbour' team.

"Much better if he thought that Alpine was an option, another British-based team, Flavio (Briatore, ed.) there, with a team that's very like Red Bull. In fact most of Enstone and Milton Keynes kind of join in each other."

"But I think he already made his mind up not to do Ferrari. And if Alpine is an option, then that's a much better way to go," concluded Kravitz.

GPblog learned of Horner's flirting with Alpine whilst he was still acting as Red Bull team principal recently. However, it was understood by this media outlet that the French team were not taking the Briton into consideration as team boss.

Since then of course, Steve Nielsen has joined the team as Managing director to 'oversee the day-to-day running of the team at Enstone, starting from 1 September ahead of the Italian Grand Prix in Monza.' Horner's F1 future, as of yet, remains vastly unknown.