Bernie Ecclestone has detailed how he reached out to Red Bull in the aftermath of Christian Horner being relieved of his duties as team principal.
The Former F1 supremo explained that he made it clear to allies at the Milton Keynes squad that it was "maybe a little bit ruthless" to fire the 51-year-old, who had been at the helm of the six-time constructors' champions started in F1 in 2005.
The British business magnate did, however, shut down suggestions he could look to partner with Horner in purchasing Alpine, something that has been loosely speculated in the weeks following the latter's Red Bull departure.
When asked for his opinion on the surprising development in the wake of the British Grand Prix, Ecclestone backed his friend to "get on" with life outside F1.
"Well, I think at the moment, it's still in a little bit of shock - for him," the 94-year-old told Sky Sports F1. "So he'll gradually get over this and realise that there's other things in the world to do, and he'll get on and do them."
It was queried whether Horner deserved such treatment from a team only he had led to that point, to which Ecclestone conceded it did not have "much choice" to move on, with Laurent Mekies being promoted from Racing Bulls.
"It depends how it was dealt with," he replied. "I had made it known to our friends there [at Red Bull] that maybe it was a little bit ruthless, perhaps, to do it in the way they did it.
"But they didn't have much choice. They decided this is what they were going to do, and that's it. They had to get on and do it."
When the Alpine rumours were put to him, Ecclestone immediately sought to minimise them, dismissing them with a dry quip at the expense of Lewis Hamilton.
"More chance of Lewis winning his eighth title than that happening," he said, before it was observed he did not think it would happen.
"I think Lewis has done a fantastic job," he responded. "He's still super talented. I think maybe he ought to sort of move over a little bit. [It would] be terrible if something happened to him now. You know, that's what's bad."
Moving away from the brief Hamilton interlude, Ecclestone diminished the possibility of Horner returning to F1.
"I don't know how or where or whether he wants to - probably doesn't want to, because the position he really wanted at Red Bull was to own part of the team," the former Brabham team owner stated.
"Unless he gets somebody to put the money up to buy a team, [I] can't see it happening."
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