Christian Horner rejected shock move to iconic F1 team that would've changed the sport forever
Christian Horner has revealed that he rejected a shock move to another F1 team back in 2013 which would have made the sport a very different place had he left Red Bull at that time.
Horner spent more than 20 years in charge of the Milton Keynes-based team, joining the squad not long after it was bought by the energy drinks giant and renamed from its previous guise, Jaguar.
Over the next two decades as team principal and CEO, Horner transformed Red Bull into one of the sport's most successful F1 teams.
He departed Red Bull midway through the 2025 season and has remained largely out of the public eye since, until recently as he promotes his soon to be published autobiography called 'Drive'.
Oversaw the rise of Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen
Horner oversaw two distinct spells of success during his time in charge of Red Bull, the first of which came between 2010 and 2013 where he oversaw Sebastian Vettel winning four consecutive Drivers' Championships and Red Bull emerging victorious in the Constructors' Championship for four years on the spin.
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From 2014 onwards as new turbo-hybrid V6 engines powered the cars, there was a changing of the guard at the front of the F1 grid as Mercedes won seven straight drivers' titles in a row, with six for Lewis Hamilton and one for Nico Rosberg in 2016.
Mercedes would also go on to win eight straight constructors' crowns from 2014 onwards - but Max Verstappen broke the German brand's monopoly of the drivers' title with victory in the 2021 championship over Hamilton in controversial circumstances in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The 2021 crown was the first of Verstappen's four drivers' titles in a row as Horner also oversaw Red Bull winning the 2022 and 2023 constructors' titles, before McLaren won the 2024 and 2025 crowns and Lando Norris pipped Verstappen to the Drivers' Championship last year.
Declining Niki Lauda's offer in 2013
At nearly the halfway point of his Red Bull stint, Horner has now revealed he had the offer to make the switch to what would prove to be his nemesis in the years to come.
In 2013 while Vettel was on the way to clinching his fourth drivers' crown and Red Bull to their own constructors success that year, Horner has revealed he was approached by the late Niki Lauda, who was the non-executive chairman at Mercedes.
Lauda had experienced success the previous year in helping to convince Hamilton to leave McLaren for Mercedes, a decision which would prove to be an inspired one in the years that followed.
And in 2013, the final year of the V8 engines and just before the start of Mercedes' F1 dominance, Horner has now revealed how Lauda tried to prise him away from Red Bull, but it was an approach that he ultimately rejected.
As per Race Plus, Horner said that Lauda told him: "'I respect you as a racer. I want you to come. Besides, Helmut [Marko, Red Bull advisor] is a miserable b*****d.'"
However, Horner continued: "I listened to his offer and shook my head. At that point, Sebastian was at the peak of his powers and Red Bull were in the ascendancy."
And he added that he told Lauda: "'Niki, I’ve been winning World Championships with Red Bull.'"
Of course, Toto Wolff went on to become the team boss of Mercedes and Horner's fierce rival as his opposite number, but it could have been a sliding doors moment if Lauda had been successful in persuading the Red Bull boss to move to pastures new.
Topics: Christian Horner, Formula 1, Red Bull Racing, Mercedes
John McDougall