Former Red Bull Formula 1 boss Christian Horner is in active negotiations to buy into Alpine's F1 team, according to its boss Flavio Briatore.
Several options for Horner to return to F1 have been mooted since his mid-season exit from Red Bull last year, but after the Aston Martin possibility came to nothing following a number of twists and turns Alpine emerged as the most prominent route to a short-term comeback.
The Renault-owned F1 team had sold a 24% stake to a group of investors - headlined by the Otro Capital company and with actors Ryan Reynolds and Michael B. Jordan and Kansas City Chiefs players Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce among the celebrity faces of the project - back in 2023, and that 24% stake has been mooted as a logical target for Horner, who is known to want equity in any future F1 project he joins rather than simply taking on a team principal role.
It’s been rumoured of late that Horner was actively in talks with the investors over that 24% stake, which has grown considerably in valuation since the 2023 buy-in despite the downturn in the team’s form. Briatore didn't exactly refute the possibility when asked about it during Alpine's 2026 livery launch, effectively confirming talks were in progress.
"In this moment, this is a lot of confusion," he said. "A few groups - I don't know how many, six, seven; every day is a new group - every day people call me about Otro. I don't care.
"So [suppose] Otro want to sell their participation in Alpine. The moment somebody buys 24% of Otro, we still have 75% [the rest] and we discuss it. But for the moment, this is the situation.
"I've known Christian for many years, I talk with Christian anyway, but this has nothing to do with me.
“First you need to buy [the] Otro [share], and after Renault need to accept the buyer, and after we see what's happening.
"But there's no link with me, because he's negotiating with Otro, he's not negotiating with us."
Briatore is known to be friends with Horner. He said last August that Horner was "for the moment not in the picture at Alpine" - but this never ruled out a future collaboration.
Asked by The Race if Horner would be a good asset to Alpine, Briatore said: "I think everybody's a good asset to the team, depending in what position you put the people. No problem."
Briatore recruited Steve Nielsen to be managing director in a day-to-day leadership role for the team but Briatore himself has been acting as de facto team principal.
