Silly season 2025-2026

[djos]

Just a thought....

Horner for FIA President?? That would really be a way to get one over on Toto and Zak

That would be hilarious, and couldn’t possibly be worse than the current wannabe dicktator!

[chrisc90]

Rumours growing amongst staff here at Silverstone that Max to Mercedes to replace Russell will be announced imminently.

No idea whether any weight to the rumour.

Interesting where are you hearing these rumours? (Yes Silverstone obviously lol....but...)

Post F1 weekend lunch gathering for Silverstone event staff....

So no reason to assume anyone knows anything...

In fact given Merc have filled their socials with Russell posts today and Max posted to thank Horner for his time at Red Bull, I personally am now thinking it was nothing more than unfounded rumours.

Heck, could have come from the same social media admin who posted the photo of the Merc motor home chimney on Instagram

What color was the smoke coming from the chimney?

[WardenOfTheNorth]

Interesting where are you hearing these rumours? (Yes Silverstone obviously lol....but...)

Post F1 weekend lunch gathering for Silverstone event staff....

So no reason to assume anyone knows anything...

In fact given Merc have filled their socials with Russell posts today and Max posted to thank Horner for his time at Red Bull, I personally am now thinking it was nothing more than unfounded rumours.

Heck, could have come from the same social media admin who posted the photo of the Merc motor home chimney on Instagram

What color was the smoke coming from the chimney?

Dunno, I was distracted by the free food...

[mzso]

Seems as good a place to pose this question as any....

Where will Horner go next, or will he walk away from F1?

I was thinking alpine or Cadillac

After kicking Renault for 10 years? Reckon Flavio would need to be full flava flav to sell that to Alpine shareholders.

It's not the shareholders, Briatore wouldn't consider giving away power. If chooses not to become team principal himself, it will be a yes man of his.

[mzso]

Red Bull are literally imploding because of Horner and his toxic traits. Anyone considering employing Horner would also need to consider that would rule out a large portion of talented staff that would not work under him on principle.

Or maybe because they didn't give him the freedom he required. He was an able team principal for decades. Why wouldn't he have remained such without having to deal with Marko's influence?

[Big Tea]

Horner getting a lot of stick on here for "just" being the figure head and all the good people under him being the drive of the teams success
Remember who chose and recruited all those people and kept them all happy until very recently.
His way of working, that is being in charge and "my way or the highway" is why I very much doubt we will ever see Horner to Ferrari where so many people have their say over his decisions.

[mzso]

I think we should not discredit Christian like that. Remember, what he was given on the beginning.. Forming a team, and it is not fair to credit only Newey for the championships... There were others too. And they were all under hands of Christian. He built a great team that became an immense force in the paddock. For sure without him I doubt RB would be where it is today.

On a side note, who was the mastermind behind the idea of building it's own engines? How it will be affected after his departure and, if the rumours are true, Max is leaving... The team will drop like a stone into midfield.

Ohh I don't think it's discrediting. Just that the TP role is nowhere near as valuable as having the best designer in F1.
Crediting Horner with acquiring Newey is a view I guess. But I'm of the opinion that Red Bull succeeded in spite of Horner, not because of him. I'm of the same opinion about Ron Dennis. To an extent, Toto too.
It cannot be overlooked that everyone and their dog was after Newey when he left McLaren.
For good reason. He's the best there is, nobody needed to be a genius to work that one out.
And Horner might have wanted him, but it was Coulthard and the famous dinner with Mateshitz that convinced Newey from all accounts I've read. And the rumoured 5 million a year.

No idea who was the mastermind behind the RBPT idea. But here's Horners reply to the question.

“We've had an incredible partnership with Honda and when they initially announced their withdrawal from Formula 1 in 2020, it was with great sadness and that's what prompted the creation of Red Bull Powertrains, to take control for our own future,” he said.

I agree with this in a fair few way, part of the reason I've never really liked Horner/Toto/Zac Brown (I almost think at times Zac tries to overshadow his own drivers gate crashing the Ferrari photo) taking all the attention the Drivers and designers like Max, Oscar, Newey, Marshall, Lewis, Lando etc at times when of all of those have the smallest role - yes they are important just not to me as public figures. But Newey stayed at RBR far longer than anywhere else in his career so I think some credit to Horner for that goes but a lot of agreeing otherwise

I think you guys are undervaluing the role of the principal. There's a lot of things to manage in an organization other than technical development, and that technical development needs to be properly supported besides. Also it's the usual role for the principal is to be the face of the team

(Also Zac is now the principal, people seem to be forgetting that. Becaus he's such an attention hog.)

[djos]

Horner getting a lot of stick on here for "just" being the figure head and all the good people under him being the drive of the teams success
Remember who chose and recruited all those people and kept them all happy until very recently.
His way of working, that is being in charge and "my way or the highway" is why I very much doubt we will ever see Horner to Ferrari where so many people have their say over his decisions.

100% Good leaders hire and retain good people, without that, you get an Alpine!

[mzso]

Zak Brown held a steady ship and managed to go through tumultuous times to then slowly make McLaren great again.
Getting Marshall and Stella were masterstrokes. But certainly not without those guys wanting to move. Done without fanfare and without Newey.
He has a different Modus operandi to Horner. But the key thing is to leave the technical side of things, ie the single most important aspect of the sport, to the technically minded. Horner/Zak/Toto all did that. Every team boss does, and if they don't, they wont last very long.

Hence why I struggle with attributions of success directed to the TPs. The real stuff happens in the minds of the engineers and then the hands of the driver. Mismanaging a team to the point of having intentions to bonk your PA, then run a denial campaign, to then no commenting, to then casting accusations of cheating toward McLaren(water in tyres/illegal materials/flexiwing), while your team is sliding down the standings is now the clear barometer.
He didn't just bring this down on himself, he's taken an F1 team with him!

Brown created those tumultuous times for the most part. Ousting Dennis, dysfunctional handling of Honda, signing up with Renault, trying to manage the team. Hell, at one point it seemed even Alonso became part of the decision making.
His main contribution was realizing he sucks, removing himself from running the team and then hiring replacements until one worked out. Now he is the team's show clown.

[Watto]

Ohh I don't think it's discrediting. Just that the TP role is nowhere near as valuable as having the best designer in F1.
Crediting Horner with acquiring Newey is a view I guess. But I'm of the opinion that Red Bull succeeded in spite of Horner, not because of him. I'm of the same opinion about Ron Dennis. To an extent, Toto too.
It cannot be overlooked that everyone and their dog was after Newey when he left McLaren.
For good reason. He's the best there is, nobody needed to be a genius to work that one out.
And Horner might have wanted him, but it was Coulthard and the famous dinner with Mateshitz that convinced Newey from all accounts I've read. And the rumoured 5 million a year.

No idea who was the mastermind behind the RBPT idea. But here's Horners reply to the question.

I agree with this in a fair few way, part of the reason I've never really liked Horner/Toto/Zac Brown (I almost think at times Zac tries to overshadow his own drivers gate crashing the Ferrari photo) taking all the attention the Drivers and designers like Max, Oscar, Newey, Marshall, Lewis, Lando etc at times when of all of those have the smallest role - yes they are important just not to me as public figures. But Newey stayed at RBR far longer than anywhere else in his career so I think some credit to Horner for that goes but a lot of agreeing otherwise

I think you guys are undervaluing the role of the principal. There's a lot of things to manage in an organization other than technical development, and that technical development needs to be properly supported besides. Also it's the usual role for the principal is to be the face of the team

(Also Zac is now the principal, people seem to be forgetting that. Becaus he's such an attention hog.)

I think they are super important to a team, for those reasons.I think there is some media facing role for them I think they take far too much attention - but I probably accept too look at the 3 most successful teams in recent years, Red Bull, Mercedes, now McLaren have someone who is a bit of an attention hog in different ways. Though Stella is McLarens principal isn't he, Brown is CEO? (close enough probably)

[vorticism]

Horner getting a lot of stick on here for "just" being the figure head and all the good people under him being the drive of the teams success
Remember who chose and recruited all those people and kept them all happy until very recently.
His way of working, that is being in charge and "my way or the highway" is why I very much doubt we will ever see Horner to Ferrari where so many people have their say over his decisions.

Are AMR on good terms with Cowell? Is he expected to remain as CEO/TP for a while? Horner to AMR seems obvious to me but I'm sure there's a hundred reasons why this can't or won't happen.

In his speech Horner made it sound like he'll have no association with Red Bull going forward. Clean break, which seems crazy considering the founding and future of RBAT and RBPT, not just RBR. I wonder how the rest of RB franchise will fare, in this era without its founder Dietrich.

[organic]

Verstappen and Toto are both holidaying in Sardinia on their respective yachts.. and trackers put them quite close to each other..

[Watto]

Verstappen and Toto are both holidaying in Sardinia on their respective yachts.. and trackers put them quite close to each other..

Erik van Haren who I think we all know has a good Verstappen connection after the Horner sacking said there hadn't been a decision make on Max's future and it would be made in the coming races aka the summer break, it was hardly a strong backing he's committed to his contract. I don't think it means he is going either but I do think it shows its still up in the air.

[tinuva]

Verstappen and Toto are both holidaying in Sardinia on their respective yachts.. and trackers put them quite close to each other..

Erik van Haren who I think we all know has a good Verstappen connection after the Horner sacking said there hadn't been a decision make on Max's future and it would be made in the coming races aka the summer break, it was hardly a strong backing he's committed to his contract. I don't think it means he is going either but I do think it shows its still up in the air.

Pretty sure Toto also said, they will only maybe announce driver contracts over the summer break, when asked about Russels contract.

So sounds inline with what Erik is saying. Nothing been decided by Mercedes yet and we will probably know once it has all played out.

[vorticism]

Toto is as much an accident of Brixworth as Hamilton was. What are people expecting? There's no guarantee of a repeat of 2014, because the engine regulations changes are of a different nature. If anything, the regs are becoming slightly simpler (no MGUH, no split turbo, lower ICE power at the same displacement) and no new tech is being introduced, only a rearrangement of what Honda, Mercedes, Renault, and Ferrari are already familiar with. Plus, there are the relatively larger aero regualtions changes (compared to 2014) happening at the same time, and we don't know who will have the best first iteration of it. Easy to say it will be Newey and AMR, but it will be only their first season together. Judging by 2025, McLaren could well bring the best 2026 aero package of the Mercedes engined cars. Verstappen must surely be aware of all of this.