Christian Horner‘s F1 return options have looked pretty limited in recent months but that is set to change.

The former Red Bull team principal of 20 years has been out of F1 since being sacked by the Milton Keynes team following the 2025 British Grand Prix last summer.

Horner insists he will never return as a team principal only, and is only interested in roles where he would be able to have a stake in the team – a thought process that helped him out of the door at Red Bull.

The one exception Horner has hinted he would make is a role at the legendary Ferrari team. After all, the man who helps make the Italian team winners again in a championship has immortality status at Maranello.

There is no obvious path to that right now, but Horner’s ambition has been met with few opportunities.

A move to buy Otro’s stake in Alpine was vetoed by Renault, with his old F1 rival Toto Wolff also looking to block his route to the team with a bid of his own.

There was flirtation with BYD over their proposed F1 entry, which has since gone cold.

Williams also looked like an excellent fit for Horner, but although he was known to have contacted every F1 team about a working opportunity, no wheels look in motion at Williams.

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Horner to Cadillac now on

Now though there looks to be a new prospect for Horner to return to F1, where he could really have a huge influence on proceedings.

Mark Walter is the owner of TWG Global who effectively run the Cadillac operation and is reportedly looking to sell the team less than a year into their first season.

He isn’t selling cheap. The reports claim that £3bn is the asking price, which is around the average for an F1 team, and Cadillac are still very much still in the teething stage when it comes to being a functioning F1 operation.

So potential is added on to the price but if there is one man who knows how to build a team from the bottom it’s Horner.

Ok, not quite so much from the bottom but the team Horner walked into in 2005 was in far from a good place.

Red Bull had only just bought the operation from Ford, who from 2000 to 2004 ran the Jaguar team.

It flopped badly, a big budget that never achieved more than being a midfield team. Much of it was blamed on processes with decision making at Ford HQ boardroom in the United States claimed to have been pivotal in slowing down operations.

Horner knows how to turn a team around

But Horner came in and slowly turned the team around. Signing Adrian Newey was key of course but within four years Red Bull had arguably the best car on the grid in 2009 even if they didn’t win the championship.

I don’t need to go into too much detail on what happens next with Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, only that the championships racked up.

That’s not to say he could do the same at Cadillac in just four years. That’s a huge project to get off the ground given they are dead last in the championship, but he would be pivotal in getting the team to run in an optimal manner with key personnel. Horner after all is a winner.

There are reportedly seven bidders looking to buy Cadillac, and it really wouldn’t be a surprise if Horner with a consortium was one of them.

It’s a hard but almost perfect project for him. He would have the ownership, the influence, and in likelihood the budget to fill a void and build a successful US F1 team.

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The FIA has confirmed why the race stewards decided that Charles Leclerc should receive a five-second time penalty during Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix, with his Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton left fuming by the decision.

The incident in question happened after a dramatic start to the race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with Hamilton starting on pole and Leclerc one row behind him in P3.

By the time the two Ferrari drivers got to turn one, Hamilton had kept his lead, with Leclerc close behind him in P2. Heading into turn four, Leclerc tried to make his move once again, going around the outside, but ultimately running off the track and therefore cutting the corner at turn five.

Leclerc gained first place as a result of this, and while Hamilton also went off track after turn four, he made it back between the white lines for turn five rather than cutting the corner and yielded second position to Max Verstappen.

Immediately, Hamilton was not happy, fuming over the radio: “Pushed out by my own team-mate.” There were further radio messages from Hamilton as the incident was investigated by the race stewards, and eventually, Leclerc was handed a five-second penalty. Hamilton’s unhappiness continued.

“The stewards are basically handing Charles this win. We agreed in the drivers’ briefing,” a frustrated Hamilton told his team, arguing that the penalty was not enough given Leclerc had gained the advantage of running out front in clean air.

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FIA explain stewards’ Charles Leclerc penalty

The FIA race stewards later explained why they had opted for a five-second penalty for Leclerc on this occasion, and not a 10-second time penalty, which is the usual punishment in such a scenario.

“The Stewards have determined that both cars entered turn 4 with excessive speed and therefore neither would have been able to make the corner on track, as demonstrated by the fact that car 44 [Hamilton], which was on the inside, had to go off track to make the corner,” the FIA confirmed.

“Car 16 [Leclerc] was therefore not entitled to claim the corner due to the excessive entry speed. The driver then completed an overtake whilst off track and accordingly this warrants a penalty.

“The baseline penalty guideline is 10 seconds; however, in mitigation is the fact that car 44 was also off track on the inside of car 16, and this occurred early in the first lap.”

Hamilton went on to finish the race in P2, behind Verstappen, who got ahead of him in the early stages after that incident with Leclerc.

His team-mate, meanwhile, came home in P4 after Kimi Antonelli overtook him to claim the final podium spot on the day he was crowned F1 world champion.

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Final practice from the 2026 Mexican Grand Prix is now in the books, with reigning world champion Lando Norris topping the timesheets ahead of qualifying later this afternoon.

This might be the last weekend he can call himself that, of course, and the man who looks set to take that crown off him in Mexico City, Kimi Antonelli, was P2 in FP3, with just 0.001 seconds separating their lap times.

After topping both FP1 and FP2 on Friday, Ferrari star Charles Leclerc was only good enough for P3 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with Oscar Piastri behind him in fourth. Max Verstappen, meanwhile, finished fifth in FP3 in his Red Bull, followed by Lewis Hamilton, whose difficult weekend continues after he was forced to retire in FP2.

George Russell, as has so often been the case this season, was off the pace of his team-mate Antonelli down in P7, with Isack Hadjar, Liam Lawson, and Arvid Lindblad rounding out the top 10 in that order.

Further down the grid, if you notice something looks off with the Haas drivers, you’d be correct. Esteban Ocon has been replaced mid-weekend in Mexico City, with Ryo Hirakawa taking his place for the rest of the weekend.

Haas have not given a reason for this, but have confirmed that Ocon is not suffering from illness.

With that said, let’s take a look at the full results below!

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F1 Mexican Grand Prix FP3 times

Here are the full results from Saturday afternoon’s FP3 session at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Is there F1 today?

Qualifying is next up later today, Saturday, October 31, at 15:00 local time and 21:00 GMT. To read the complete breakdown of the times and how to watch in select locations, click here.

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