Helmut Marko had to work hard to retain the Briton.
Scuderia Ferrari made the decision to replace Mattia Binotto as team principal last season, once they saw that they were not going to be able to fight for the championship against Max Verstappen and Red Bull. The attempt to sign Christian Horner to replace the Italian who has emerged this weekend confirms this.
Horner is one of the heavyweights of the Red Bull team. The Briton was hired by the energy drink team as soon as he landed in Formula 1, in the already distant 2005. With him at the helm, Red Bull has won no less than 99 victories and five world titles, between drivers and constructors , dominating with Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.
The Ferrari team, in its desire to replace Binotto with a prestigious technician and proven success at the helm of an F1 team, contacted Horner, who is precisely at the helm of his main rival in the championship. Apparently, the offer from Ferrari to Horner was good enough for him to appreciate it, and even passed it on to Helmut Marko.
The Austrian adviser, according to the information published by the always well-informed Swiss newspaper Blick, had to sit down with Horner so that he would not leave: “It took me a whole night to convince Horner to stay at Red Bull, as well as several million more.”
It is not the first time that there has been talk that Ferrari is trying to sign an important member of Red Bull. In addition to Horner, it has been rumored on several occasions in recent years that Ferrari has tried to recruit Adrian Newey to lead its technical department, which of course has not been possible. In fact, Newey would have recently extended his relationship with Red Bull.
Marko also remembers a similar case with Newey years ago: “Old Ferrari boss Montezemolo was already cheering up the paddock and wanted to announce the deal (with Newey). But overnight we were able to change Newey’s mind!”
What Red Bull has not prevented is the departure of the team of who was Newey’s right-hand man, Dan Fallows, current technical director of Aston Martin F1; nor of Rob Marshall, the company’s former chief engineer, who will join McLaren early next year.
As for Ferrari, Binotto was finally replaced by Frédéric Vasseur, who certainly has not had a great start to the season at the Scuderia, since neither Carlos Sainz nor Charles Leclerc have had options to fight for victories this year and have only managed one podium so far this year.
