3 unpopular decisions Christian Horner would make IF he does join Ferrari

Rumors around Christian Horner's potential move to Ferrari have continued to gain momentum in the last few days. Even though, at first thought, it's hard to think that the Brit is going to end up at the Italian team because of a lack of compatibility, if he does, it means a few of his conditions have been fulfilled.

These conditions should involve full freedom on how he wants to run the team, and if he is given that and there is an agreement, Christian Horner is going to come to Ferrari with an approach where quite a few things would change. Some of it may even trickle down to the culture, especially considering how differently Horner ran Red Bull compared to the Italian team.

At a very initial stage, though, there are going to be a few unpopular decisions at Ferrari that Christian Horner is going to make that could, in essence, be a bit of a shock for the squad and the onlookers. Let's take a look at 3 unpopular calls that Horner could make if he takes over at the Italian team.

#1 Pick a lead driver to center the entire project around

Christian Horner's philosophy when it comes to running a team is having one alpha and a supporting cast in terms of his driver lineup. The first choice he would potentially have is Charles Leclerc. The fact that Leclerc has been a part of the squad for close to a decade does mean that he might not be too keen to continue.

If Horner is unable to sell Leclerc the dream, the next choice could potentially be a George Russell who has not been made to feel wanted in any which way by Toto Wolff at Mercedes in the last few months.

When Christian Horner joins Ferrari, his first step is going to be picking the best possible driver that he can get his hands on for the long term, and the likes of Charles Leclerc and George Russell would fit the criteria perfectly.

For a while now, Ferrari has been hesitant in installing the lead driver dynamics within the team, and a lot of times it has led to a counterintuitive approach of helping the second driver get to the level of the top driver. Horner's approach is certainly going to be a jolt to the system, where the entire dynamics of how the team is run change.

#2 Christian Horner lets Lewis Hamilton go from Ferrari

Arguably the biggest shocker that's not going to be popular with the fans and even with the F1 community is that one would expect Christian Horner to let Lewis Hamilton go. The 7x champion's contract has an option for 2027, and one could expect Ferrari to have a say on whether it wants to continue with the Brit or not.

Horner's philosophy on not having two Alphas within the team and Lewis Hamilton's age would go against the 7x F1 champion. To add to this, it is safe to say that Horner and Hamilton do not see eye to eye anyway, and if we have a scenario where the former Red Bull boss is leading Ferrari, we know that the legend's association with the Italian team is on thin ice anyway.

#3 Christian Horner leads the engine department as well

Arguably, one thing that's going to ruffle a lot of feathers within the Italian team is how Christian Horner is going to lead a restructuring process where he takes over the engine department as well. In what has been the convention within the Italian squad, the racing team works separately from the engine department.

Horner, however, has often doubled down on his belief that the best way to run an F1 team is through a top-down structure where one man oversees the entire operation. If he joined the Italian team, he would want to oversee the entire operation, and that would involve the power unit operation as well.

As we said earlier, these moves are certainly going to ruffle a lot of feathers if he does go through with some of these things.