REVEALED: Why Christian Horner could land dream Ferrari role, how Bernie Ecclestone is pushing his cause, Geri’s view on an Italy move and the Prancing Horse chief who’s under pressure – VOICE OF THE PADDOCK

If Ferrari want to live up to their reputation and create a new chapter in their storied history, they should sign Christian Horner immediately.

They have not won a world championship since 2008, nearly 20 years ago, in which intervening years Horner accrued 14 titles at Red Bull, taking in the drivers’ and constructors’ garlands.

I can reveal that Bernie Ecclestone, best man at Horner’s wedding to Geri Halliwell 11 years ago, has lobbied for this outcome. And persistently so.

I understand that Piero Ferrari, second and only living son of the Scuderia’s founding father Enzo, is in support of the proposition Ecclestone is promulgating, and Piero remains a big player at the team, as vice-chairman and eminence grise.

He can see the benefits of the union, but it requires a leap of faith from chairman John Elkann – one over which he havers – to go outside mainland Europe to employ his team principal.

Horner gets on well with Elkann, very well. Indeed, Elkann supported Horner when he lost his job at Red Bull last year.

Frenchman Jean Todt was given the Ferrari team principal role to great success with Michael Schumacher in the late Nineties and the early years of this century, delivering five drivers’ titles, but, among the Maranello hierarchy, ‘an Englishman?’ 

Upon that thought alone hinges whether Horner will ever take up the position at Ferrari.

Make no mistake, Horner is open to the idea of running the team, as he revealed in an interview in The Times last week.

‘At this stage in my life, there’s only one team for which I would accept non-participation in ownership,’ he said. ‘Would I consider Ferrari? I mean, Ferrari is the biggest brand in Formula One. It’s the dream. And arguably it’s the sleeping giant of Formula One.’

I understand that Geri would be open to the move to the Maranello area, living in Italy and splitting her time between their estate in Oxfordshire and house in Highgate, London, to support her husband.

For Ferrari, it would make eminent sense. They are struggling under the current clownish leadership of Fred Vasseur, whose health issues also cloud the issue.

He missed a day in Monaco this year with heart problems exacerbated by the stress of the job.

Vasseur’s CV also indicates he is ill-prepared for the task.

This Frenchman can count himself fortunate indeed ever to have been handed the chance to lead the Scuderia. For, based on his track record in Formula One, he hardly warranted such promotion. He entered the top tier of motor racing in 2016 as team principal of Renault. They finished ninth out of 10 in the constructors’ championship.

He moved to Sauber, later to be rebranded Alfa Romeo, the following year. He joined midway through the season and they finished 10th. Next year, eighth. Then eighth, ninth and sixth. He did not take them to one victory in that span, nor into the top half of the table.

This year Ferrari are doing OK, but with no chance of winning either title, despite lying second in the constructors’ standings behind Mercedes. There are grumblings at Maranello behind the cryptic scenes about his future.

Vasseur, so successful as a boss in junior formulas, is widely seen as a man at sea where he is. And everyone at Maranello knows it. He has not bothered to learn more than a few words of Italian, either, which is not conducive to working there. There is an arrogance or a laziness in his failure to do so.

For Horner to work at Ferrari, he needs a free hand, to be able to hire and fire.

As Ecclestone explained: ‘He should say to them give me five years and I do it my way, totally, entire freedom, and if it works, I stay; if it doesn’t, you get rid of me.’

Bernie’s got his gun back! 

On the subject of Bernie Ecclestone, he was recently stopped by police after flying from Switzerland to Portugal – the two countries where he predominantly lives with his Brazilian wife Fabiana – for carrying a shotgun into the country.

I can reveal that the situation has been resolved amicably through talks with the authorities in Portugal.

Fabiana, 49, explained to police in Lisbon that the gun was being transported for clay-pigeon shooting and that, despite the lack of documentation Bernie carried (no ‘blue book’), all was above board.

The Ecclestones are happily reunited with the gun, and all is well.

‘It’s all been sorted and there is no problem; there never was any problem at all, really,’ Ecclestone, 95, told me.

Time to give it up, Fernando…

Another abominable weekend just gone for Aston Martin in Azerbaijan. Both cars retired. How much longer should Fernando Alonso race on, one wonders? He is a great driver in my estimation. Yes, a two-time world champion, and a great one at that, but he has not won a race for 13 years.

The Spaniard is 45 and in a team going nowhere fast. Is it not time to stop to preserve his own dignity?