Christian Horner is not picking Ayrton Senna.

More than a year on from his dismissal at Red Bull, Horner has been asked a familiar question on a podcast: Build a dream Formula 1 team around Max Verstappen. The line-up he came up with pairs the Dutchman with the driver who took the 1992 title.

“I loved working, obviously with Max, with Sebastian, but it’d be fun to take a driver from an old era as well, wouldn’t it?” Horner said on Jodie Kidd’s Kidd in a Sweet Shop podcast. “It would be fun to put a Mansell next to a Max, wouldn’t it?”

Nigel Mansell took the 1992 world championship with Williams and finished his Formula 1 career with 31 Grand Prix wins.

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On the same podcast, Horner weighed working with Senna, Clark and Jackie Stewart, speaking of the skill required to drive the dangerous cars of their era, before settling on Mansell as his pick.

No pit wall in sight

Red Bull parted ways with Horner in July 2025 after a 20-year spell in charge. His first announced engagement afterwards was an Australian speaking tour through Melbourne, Sydney and Perth in February and March 2026, followed by an advisory role at London private equity house Oakley Capital announced on 3 June 2026.

A Ferrari job is the only F1 role he has publicly said could tempt him back to a pit wall. On his recent book tour he went further.

“If my time is done in Formula One, I’ve had a hell of a ride, and I did OK,” Horner told audiences, saying he was at peace with the possibility of never returning.

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The pairing will stay hypothetical. Horner’s only announced work for the rest of 2026 is the Oakley Capital brief.

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