Martin Brundle played down the prospect of Christian Horner taking over as Aston Martin team boss, with Adrian Newey understood to be looking for his long-term successor in the role.

Brundle pointed to an ambition from Horner to take on shares in a team if he were to return to Formula 1. That could potentially happen for Horner with Aston Martin, Brundle states, though he expects the former Red Bull boss to bide his time on any decision. Horner is in the running for a stake in Alpine.

Martin Brundle not convinced on Christian Horner to Aston Martin

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust.

As reported by PlanetF1.com last month, Newey, Aston Martin’s managing technical partner, shareholder and team principal, is understood to be leading the team’s search for a figure to take over the team principal role in the long term.

Newey is understood to have identified former Audi F1 team boss Jonathan Wheatley as a primary target.

During Sky’s ‘The F1 Show’ podcast, Brundle was asked whether he believes that Horner, a former Red Bull colleague to both Newey and Wheatley, could take on the Aston Martin team boss role.

“I doubt it, because he wants a slice of a team that he goes to,” said Brundle.

Asked if this is not something which Aston Martin F1 team owner Lawrence Stroll could give Horner, as he did to Newey, Brundle added: “He might want to do that.

“I mean, Christian might be picking up some shares somewhere in one of the teams a bit more cheaply down the road, I don’t know.

“I think he’ll wait and get the right situation.”

Horner is understood to be one of the interested parties in the 24 per cent Alpine F1 team stake currently owned by Otro Capital.

More on Aston Martin from PlanetF1.com

Honda ‘enhancing’ Aston Martin ‘countermeasures’ in latest progress update

Adrian Newey faces brutal Aston Martin reality as AMR26 reliability crisis bites early

Newey – one of Formula 1’s greatest designers with 26 world championship wins on his CV – has admitted to the Aston Martin team principal role distracting him in parts from his design and development work.

“I don’t think putting Adrian in as team principal or anything like that is a good use of his talents,” Brundle suggested.

“He’s not really a leader of people, I don’t think. I think he’s just a genius and should be focused on that, and somebody else needs to be doing the logistical stuff and the meetings and what have you.

“I just think it’s not the best use of Adrian’s talent.”

This is a viewpoint echoed by Newey’s former Williams, McLaren and Red Bull colleague, 13-time grand prix winner David Coulthard.

“He is a technical guru, genius, pick your favourite word for him,” said Coulthard of Newey on the Up To Speed podcast. “At no point in the 30-odd years he’s been in Formula 1, has he ever said or appeared to be a team principal.

“Team principal, for me, is the public face of the team. They are the vocal, final, sort of point of, this is the position of the team. So they have to do the media side.

“They also have to be visionaries across their technical department, their drivers, see longer term as to putting all the right people in place.

“So they have a multitude of responsibilities, rather than, a technical director, being specifically looking at what the regulations say. How do we exploit them.”

Aston Martin is chasing a first point of the F1 2026 campaign ahead of Round 4 in Miami.

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!

Read next: Audi makes major leadership appointment after Jonathan Wheatley exit