Christian Horner has been looking for a way back into the Formula 1 paddock since leaving Red Bull, and Toto Wolff is not exactly rolling out the welcome mat. Still, he is not shutting the door entirely either. Formula 1, as ever, prefers tension to peace and quiet.

Wolff’s mixed view

Speaking to Press Association, the Mercedes team principal said he was “in two minds” about a potential Horner return.

“The sport is missing personalities,” Wolff said. “And his personality was clearly very controversial and that is good for the sport.”

He then summed up F1’s preferred cast of characters in typically blunt fashion.

“I said to Fred Vasseur that it needs ‘the good, the bad, and the ugly.’ And it is now only the good and the ugly left. The bad is gone!”

Horner, who spent years as Red Bull’s team principal before being ousted midway through the 2025 campaign, built a reputation for sharp elbows and political maneuvering. That style made him one of the sport’s most recognisable figures, and also one of its most divisive.

Wolff and Horner were fierce rivals for years, with their feud reaching its most intense point during the 2021 season, when Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen battled for the drivers’ championship.

No desire to work side by side

For all the respect Wolff has for Horner’s results, he was clear about one thing: he does not see the pair working together.

“Would I consider that he could ever be an ally or someone that shares objectives? I don’t think so,” he said.

That said, Wolff also drew a line between rivalry and outright bitterness. Horner’s Red Bull record places him among the most successful team bosses in Formula 1 history, and Wolff said that achievement deserves recognition, even if the relationship between them was often combustible.

“But even when I had the biggest frustration, and anger with him, you need to remind yourself that even your worst enemy has a best friend so there must be some goodness,” Wolff said.

“Over those years it was just too intense, too fierce, and things happened which even today I cannot comprehend why he has done them.”

Wolff added that he does not know whether Horner is actually on his way back to Formula 1, or in what role that might happen if he is.

“I certainly don’t wish him bad,” he said. “And we need to give each other credit.

“There are not many team principals who have done what he has done.

“I see a situation that whatever happens, whatever outcomes there may be, whether he comes back to Formula 1 or not, I am at ease with it.”