Christian Horner’s humorous bid at the Autosport Awards Ceremony on Sunday evening was good enough to win him a tour around the Mercedes Formula 1 factory and contributed to raising nearly £50k for the Grand Prix Trust.
The Autosport Awards ceremony was held at Grosvenor House, London on Sunday. During the event, a silent auction took place with the proceeds going to the Grand Prix Trust, a charity that helps support the F1 community including former drivers and employees.
One of the prizes up for auction was a four person tour of the Mercedes F1 factory in Brackley. The winning bid came in at £4000 and during the evening, it was revealed that the winning bidder was none other than Red Bull’s team principle Christian Horner.
The news of this began to circulate around social media with fans finding the humorous side of story and speculating that Horner and his team were trying to get a snoop around the factory of their championship rivals ahead of the new 2022 season.
Check mate! 😂. #AutosportAwards charity auction. @redbullracing @MercedesAMGF1 pic.twitter.com/1nDYA4ZhKw
— Dan Cammish (@DanCammish) February 6, 2022However, it has now been brought to light that Horner may not be able to go on the tour with his team as in the terms and conditions of the prize, the small print reads: “Please note that employees of other Formula 1 teams are not eligible to take this tour”. You can’t fault Christian Horner for trying.
The event itself was a great success with many awards being won across motorsport as well as a lot of prizes up for grabs in the auction. The total amount of money raised including external donations came to £46,752 on the night.