Christian Horner blocked from attending Mercedes factory tour after £4,000 purchase

Christian Horner has apparently been blocked from attending a Mercedes factory tour which he won when it was offered as a prize at a recent auction. The Red Bull chief submitted the highest bid of £4,000 to bag himself the tour – but Mercedes chiefs have banned him from taking up the offer.

Horner landed himself the tour after outbidding F1 enthusiasts at the Autosport Awards Charity Auction.

And the money raised from his winning bid is set to go to the Grand Prix Trust, which has provided help and advice to F1’s trackside and factory-based team personnel, along with everybody directly involved in the sport, for three decades.

But, according to racingnews365, the 48-year-old will not be able to take up the offer as a clause was written into the prize which prevented employees from other teams from taking the tour.

Horner had clearly submitted the cheeky bid in an attempt to get a behind-the-scenes look at how Red Bull’s fiercest rivals are operating.

And he even joked after submitting the winning bid that he would be taking a whole host of his team’s top staff with him on the tour.

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“I think by the time we get to the first race, the car’s not going to look very much like this and I think the evolution will be very, very quick as we progress through the season.

“You’re always improving. You can always learn from previous experiences.

“But of course the complete new set of regulations is going to be all about the development – how quickly the teams get on top of the set of new regulations.”