By Yash Kotak

Copyright sportskeeda

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has spoken about the rumors surrounding his arch-rival Christian Horner’s return to F1. The former Red Bull Team Principal recently finalized a $100 million exit settlement with the team, just over two months after being terminated by the energy drinks manufacturer.With the exit finalized, Horner can return to the F1 paddock in a working capacity in the first half of 2026 after serving his Red Bull gardening leave. A report in the wake of the news suggested that the 51-year-old could join Haas, which would give him greater autonomy to reverse the struggling team’s fortunes.There also exist other opinions by F1 analysts, which tie Christian Horner to a move to Aston Martin, reuniting him with former Red Bull technical mastermind, Adrian Newey. Zak Brown, who shared a sour relationship with Horner and didn’t find his Red Bull sacking ‘surprising’, recently addressed the rumors about the Briton’s F1 return.”I think he’s had a stellar career in Formula 1. His results are lots of driver championships, world championships. So I think when you get in the sport, not everyone’s best friends. There’s different characters. So while we many not have too many cups of tea, in England as we say, you know you need all different kinds of characters in the sport, and I think that’s what makes the sport very exciting. That’s that kind of Netflix effect is what happens off the track, Brown said via Bloomberg Television on YouTube. [4:10 onwards]The McLaren Racing CEO then explained how rivalries like his and Christian Horner’s only make F1 a better spectacle for fans.”Our sport’s unique, in that it’s not only a competition on the field of play extremely exciting, there’s a lot of competition off the field of play, and that’s a small group of team bosses and driver so the fans can kind of get to know us all. So yeah, I’ve got my friends in pit lane and some that aren’t. But I think that’s what makes it exciting and it’s authentic and genuine,” Brown added.Zak Brown claimed F1 was in a ‘healthier’ place after Christian Horner’s exitF1 Grand Prix of USA – Final Practice – Source: GettyRed Bull Racing immediately replaced Christian Horner with Laurent Mekies, the then-Team Principal of junior team Racing Bulls, as Team Principal of the senior team in July. Zak Brown commented on Mekies’ promotion and highlighted how F1 will become a ‘healthier’ place with relatively less politics now that he has become the new face of Red Bull.The McLaren boss said (via Speedcafe):”I’m happy he’s in the role he’s in. I like Laurent, and I think that’ll be healthy, and maybe we can get back to focusing on competition on the track. While there’s always going to be some political aspects to the sport, I think it’s going to be healthier with Laurent. I’m a fan of Laurent. I’ve known him for a long time, and I think it’ll be good to go racing against Laurent.”In the last year and a half of Christian Horner’s tenure, Red Bull was in internal turmoil. An internal power struggle surfaced, which was one of several consequences in the aftermath of the controversy about a female employee accusing him of ‘inappropriate behavior’.