How likely is it that Horner will be in F1 next year?

The lights go on in Singapore this weekend as the battle for the Formula 1 world title resumes on the streets of Marina Bay.

Oscar Piastri leads McLaren team-mate Lando Norris by 25 points – a race win – before the night race, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen 69 points behind the Australian after his victory in Azerbaijan.

McLaren seem set to secure the constructors’ championship in Singapore, needing only 13 points to wrap up a second straight team title. Even if they don’t manage that, Mercedes need to outscore them by 31 points or Ferrari by 35 to prevent them winning it this weekend.

BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your latest questions.

Now that Christian Horner has officially been released by Red Bull Racing, how likely is it that we will see him in another F1 team next season, and would he only accept a role as a chief executive officer or similar? – Matthew

The topic was covered extensively in an article last week.

In short, it seems Horner is keen to come back to F1, but that if he does so, he does not want to be ‘only’ a team principal. He would want a shareholding in the team and a strong degree of control.

He wants the status that his nemesis at Mercedes, Toto Wolff, has had since buying into the team in 2013.

Horner was already chief executive officer of Red Bull Racing as well as team principal, but he did not have equity, and his desire for control was ultimately partly to blame for his undoing.

Where could he go? That’s harder to say, and there are potential blocks to him in a lot of places you look.

Alpine? They have just employed a new person in a role that is effectively team principal, managing director Steve Nielsen. And they already have someone above him in executive adviser Flavio Briatore, who is in ultimate charge.

Equally, Alpine have Mercedes engines, and it is hard to imagine Wolff agreeing to supply his power-units to any team run by Horner, given the state of their relationship.

Aston Martin have been mentioned in some reports. They have ambition and wealth through team owner Lawrence Stroll.

However, Adrian Newey joined them in March as managing technical partner, with a shareholding. And Newey left Red Bull largely because of Horner – the allegations levelled against him by a female employee, and Horner’s role in diminishing Newey’s contribution over the previous couple of years.

Would Newey want to work again with Horner in those circumstances?

Ferrari? Frederic Vasseur has just signed a new multi-year contract as team principal, and it’s hard to imagine them making Horner CEO of the car company and giving him a substantial shareholding, especially given how well Ferrari has done since it was listed.

Haas? Does owner Gene Haas want to sell a substantial shareholding? So far, the answer has been no.

Does he want to change his team’s philosophy? So far, he has been happy to do F1 on a small budget and buy as many parts as possible from Ferrari. And does he want to spend a lot of money on Horner’s salary?

Williams? They seem pretty content with progress under James Vowles. Does owner Dorilton need to dilute its shareholding to have Horner on board?

Fernando Alonso says it will be hard for him to retire next year if the car is uncompetitive. If he wants to carry on, what are his real options of getting a championship-winning car outside of Aston Martin and do you see him staying? – Srinivasan

Alonso will be 45 in July next year, and his Aston Martin contract runs out at the end of the 2026 season.

So, there are two questions – will he want to carry on after next year, and will any team want to sign someone who will be 46 the following season?

There is no sign so far of Alonso’s performance dropping off with age. Unusually, he is behind team-mate Lance Stroll in the championship this season, but that is more to do with circumstance than performance.

That can be seen from their qualifying record – Alonso is 19-1 ahead on the head-to-head across all sessions at an average of 0.319secs.

Realistically, though, it’s unlikely a top team would want to sign Alonso, and I’m not convinced he’d want to leave Aston Martin – he believes in the project and they have Adrian Newey.

So, if he stays in F1, one would expect it will be with Aston Martin.

I have to admit, I don’t completely understand Alonso’s logic in saying what he did in the interview Aston Martin released last week: “Let’s say that if we are competitive, there is more chance that I stop. If we are not competitive, it will be very hard to give up without trying again.”

You’d think it might be the other way around – that if they were competitive, he’d want to keep going, and if they weren’t, he might just think, ‘well, I hung on for this, it hasn’t worked, I might as well stop’.

But doubtless this will come up in his media session on Thursday in Singapore.

The improvements at Williams have been impressive since James Vowles took charge. However, how far can he realistically take the team without a huge injection of cash or the investment of a car manufacturer? – Mark

Williams’ ambitions are clear – they want to return to their former position at the top of F1.

Owner Dorilton has already invested a significant amount of money in the team. That’s partly why so much progress has been seen under James Vowles.

They have put a lot of effort into the new regulations that are being introduced next season and say they expect to be close to achieving their ambitions by 2027 or 2028. Time will tell.

Max Verstappen’s dominance over his Red Bull team-mates is ironically reminiscent of Michael Schumacher’s over Jos Verstappen at Benetton in 1994. Was dad Jos’ experience a key factor in making Max the champion he is? – Alexander

Jos Verstappen devoted his life to preparing Max for F1 from the moment his own career came to an end.

The extent to which he did this has been well documented, and you can read about it in this article, which was initially published on the eve of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Max started in karts from the age of three, and Jos was a very demanding tutor.

It seems as if Max is the perfect combination of nature and nurture. His father was an F1 driver. His mother, Sophie Kumpen, was a highly rated go-karter, who raced competitively against many future F1 drivers. And Max has put in the practice necessary.

And still does, let’s face it. Last weekend was a weekend off from F1. Was Max relaxing? No. He was making his racing debut at the Nurburgring Nordschleife – and winning, proving on a separate level from everyone else. Unsurprising in a way, given who he is. But also remarkable.

Without the talent, Verstappen would not be the driver he is. But the same can be said of the degree of nurturing involved.

The motorsport triple crown, of winning the Monaco Grand Prix, Le Mans and Indy 500 is a fabled feat that only Graham Hill has ever achieved. Do you think there is a reasonable chance that any driver could complete it within the foreseeable future? – Josh

Only two drivers at the moment are close to being able to achieve the triple crown. Juan Pablo Montoya has won Monaco and the Indy 500, but not Le Mans. Fernando Alonso has won Monaco and Le Mans twice, but not the Indy 500.

Montoya is 50 years old and has effectively retired. The last time I asked Alonso about Indy, he did not sound that keen on going back.

This was in 2022, admittedly, but he said that he was concerned about safety and had found the cars less satisfying since the introduction of the aero screen, IndyCar’s version of the halo head-protection device in F1.

“No, it’s too dangerous,” Alonso said. “Also with the aero screen now it is more difficult to follow, it’s less fun.”

Of course, he might change his mind. But for now it looks like Alonso is more likely to return to the Dakar Rally than Indy after he leaves F1.

In that context, the triple crown does not look likely to be achieved for some time – the way things are these days, it’s hard to see a driver competing in F1, IndyCars and Le Mans through their career.

Even the F1 drivers who say they want to explore other categories tend not to sound that keen on Indy – Verstappen, for example.