Making his argument, Chandhok says it not only means Horner wouldn’t have to move his family to Italy, but he’s also good friends with Alpine executive director Flavio Briatore. “To me, I could see him landing at Alpine more than I could see him landing at Ferrari now,” said the former F1 driver.

In fact, Ferrari have slipped even further back from McLaren since the end of the 2024 campaign when both teams were fighting for the constructors' championship at the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi. McLaren now currently lead the Maranello outfit by a mammoth 238 points .