Horner sounded out Haas over potential role — but the money doesn’t add up
Christian Horner isn’t sitting still. The former Red Bull Racing chief has already been working the phones, and Haas have confirmed they took one of his calls.
In the build-up to the Singapore Grand Prix, Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu said Horner approached the team about a potential future position. It didn’t go far. “One of our guys had an exploratory talk. Then that’s it. Nothing’s gone any further,” Komatsu said.
The timing tracks with the paddock gossip around Horner’s next move. Following his exit from Red Bull after the British Grand Prix, it’s understood a settlement paves the way for him to return to an F1 role from mid-2026. With that horizon in mind, Horner’s name has been nudged into conversations at multiple teams — Alpine and Aston Martin among them — and, now, clearly, Haas.
But is a Horner-to-Haas play remotely realistic? Guenther Steiner, the man who built Haas from the ground up before leaving in 2024, doesn’t think so — bluntly, because of the budget.
“I mean, we all know now from the reporting how much money Christian made,” Steiner said on The Red Flags Podcast. “I do not think that Haas will pay him that amount of money. That’s the first thing.”
Steiner, never shy with a straight line, added: “I wish I was paid the amount Christian was paid, but I wasn’t!”
Beyond the paycheck, Steiner questioned the fit. Horner spent nearly two decades presiding over Red Bull’s juggernaut — a team with the sport’s biggest infrastructure and a complete in-house ecosystem, from chassis to power units. Haas, by design, is lean. It buys heavily from Ferrari, keeps headcount tight, and plays the percentages within the cost cap. The cultures are miles apart.
“Where Christian is coming from, it’s different,” Steiner said. “Red Bull is a team with the biggest infrastructure. They make their own engines… It’s a completely different thing.”
There’s also the matter of what Horner wants next. People familiar with the situation suggest he’s seeking a structure similar to Toto Wolff’s stake-and-say at Mercedes — not just a job title, but equity and influence. At a team like Haas, privately owned and famously frugal, that’s a much harder puzzle to solve. Would Gene Haas sell a slice for a marquee name? That’s a far bigger conversation than one exploratory call.
If Komatsu’s comment made it sound like a quick hello rather than a strategic courtship, that tracks with how these things snowball in F1. You take a meeting, someone sees you in the paddock hospitality, and suddenly the rumor’s off to the races. “This is how quick rumors get legs in Formula 1,” Steiner said. “You speak with somebody, it’s a fact. No, we just spoke about it.”
For now, Horner’s immediate future remains undefined. TV is always there — he’d be a ready-made broadcaster — but the appetite is clearly to get back on the pit wall. After two decades of front-line winning, he’s not likely to scratch the itch with a studio gig. Equally, a quick rebound into the wrong project rarely ends well. Even Steiner, who declined to offer direct advice, hinted at patience. “Give himself a little bit of time, to calm down, not to take the first opportunity but to see what else is around.”
Haas, meanwhile, are busy trying to climb back into the thick of the midfield fight. The American outfit has sharpened operations under Komatsu, kept its cost-cap discipline, and hunted for incremental gains rather than grand gestures. It’s hard to see how parachuting in a heavyweight operator like Horner — on heavyweight money and, potentially, with ownership strings attached — slots neatly into that plan.
Could circumstances change? Of course. F1 is a sport built on moving targets and sudden pivots. But right now, the numbers and the philosophy don’t line up. Horner’s calling; Haas are listening — just not at any price.
