Christian Horner blocked from signing 'perfect' Red Bull driver after late intervention staged

Christian Horner says he was blocked from signing Charles Leclerc for Red Bull during his time as team principal - describing the Monegasque as a 'perfect' driver for the team.

Horner, who has been linked with a switch to Ferrari over recent weeks, has not returned to Formula 1 since he was sacked as team principal and CEO of Red Bull in July 2025. He has also remained largely out of the public limelight since then, though has been writing his maiden autobiography, 'Drive', which releases later in October.

In the book, he opens up on his near 21-year stint at Red Bull and the drivers and staff he worked alongside - as well as the drivers he didn't manage to bring to Red Bull. And there is a surprising revelation when it comes to Leclerc, who has spent nearly his entire F1 career signed to Ferrari.

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Christian Horner makes shock Charles Leclerc admission

Leclerc is now into his eighth season with Ferrari, having come through their driver academy before spending his debut F1 season at Sauber in 2018.

He has recently signed a new multi-year deal that reportedly keeps him with the Scuderia until the end of 2028, but that hasn't stopped there being interest from other teams in his services.

One of those, it has emerged, was Red Bull - and more specifically, Horner.

At the beginning of the 2023 season, Sergio Perez was entering his third year as a Red Bull driver, having finished in third place in the previous season's Drivers' Championship.

The Mexican, at the time, had a contract until the end of the 2024 season, which he would ultimately see out before being replaced by Liam Lawson for the beginning of 2025.

But things could have been very different if Horner had his way - and if Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko hadn't had his.

"I thought he [Leclerc] could be the perfect driver for us," Horner wrote, explaining that he held a meeting with Leclerc's manager in 2023 and that the interest from the Red Bull side remained a year later.

Charles Leclerc was wanted at Red Bull by Christian Horner in 2023 and 2024 (Image: Getty)

"Shortly afterwards, Helmut told me that I should forget about Charles as well. Just like with Fernando [who Horner also wanted], it wasn't going to happen. I knew immediately that that order did not come from Max ... but someone somewhere had decided that it wasn't the right step for Red Bull. I was disappointed."

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What Red Bull did instead of signing Charles Leclerc

Speaking on the Drive to Survive Netflix series last year, Horner explained that Marko had been a 'big driver' in pushing for Red Bull to sign drivers from its driver academy, rather than from other teams.

Perez, whose contract with Racing Point expired before he joined Red Bull in 2021, was a rare exception - with every other driver Red Bull had signed to their team since 2009 having been at some stage part of their junior ranks.

That trend continued when they signed Lawson for 2025, and when the New Zealander was replaced by Yuki Tsunoda after just two races. Max Verstappen's current team-mate Isack Hadjar was also part of the driver academy.

As well as Perez, the only other Red Bull drivers to have not been part of the academy were Mark Webber and David Coulthard - the latter of whom joined Red Bull ahead of their debut season in F1 in 2005.