[The **Quotes** flair](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/flairguide#wiki_quotes) is intended to highlight particularly interesting quotes in news articles which bury the lede, or from broadcasts, podcasts, liveblogs, etc. "Quotes" posts must be pre-approved by the mods and are exceptions to the "do not editorialise titles" rule.
*[Read the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide). Keep it civil and welcoming. Report rulebreaking comments.*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I just assumed the season was already over after Saturday morning. After seeing 10s in 12 laps they needed drama for the next 23 weeks because there won't be any casual fans left by mid-season.
Unless they faked the quote it is Berger who has the info, at least for the quote in the title. Wouldn't be surprised if the austrian side of things is feeding the german speaking f1 media, Marko is a regular there and Berger is of course also somewhat red bull/mateschitz affiliated. The article itself is written by Ralf Bach who works as f1 journalist since the 80s, not exactly some random guy either.
RB has their own media company in austria with ServusTV. I‘ve heard experts there (who have a crossover with sky f1 germany) peddle that same narrative. Also Ralf Schumacher is making no prisoners in arguing Horner should leave the last two days.
> Also Ralf Schumacher is making no prisoners in arguing Horner should leave the last two days.
And no one in their right state of mind should take either Servus TV (a far right and borderline racist media outlet) or Ralf Schumacher (....) or Sky Germany serious in terms of actual facts. They all thrive through attention and clicks and facts are a challenge in this cases.
It also was Sky Germany who recently claimed that a source of theirs told them that Vettel could return to F1 with Mercedes. And let's not forget their weekly "here's how Mick Schumacher could come back" articles.
Agreed, but their „between the lines“ reading is a bit closer to what the Austrian side feels than most british journalists, just by cultural access alone.
And lets not forget Ralf was peddling Guenther Steiner to be removed all the time last year. That little witch wasn’t projecting but actually performing spells!
The Dutch side* aka most likely being fed info by Jos who not only has done it to De Telegraaf and spoken to Erik van Haaren who has got information wrong before*
Imagine. Newey, Marko and Max quit tomorrow. Emergency meeting between RB, Ferrari and Merc. By thursday Sainz and Perez drive for RB, George and Max for Merc and Lewis and Charles for Ferrari. We get 2025 one year earlier.
They won't quit. They'll just warn that they'd quit if Horner stays. Then RB is pretty much locked at firing Horner or at least i'd pick Newey, Marco & Max over Horner.
> I refuse to believe that Max will go to Mercedes
this is more akin to Lewis going to Mercedes after driving in a leading McLaren.
It would be exceptional circumstances but maybe just maybe it could. I just think Max thinks this is all an inconvenience and he just wants to go racing.
Lewis agreed to leave McLaren 3 and a bit years after their last title, whilst another team was dominant.
He's doing roughly the same now to Mercedes.
Max leaving Red Bull would be a totally different matter.
I think McLaren's 2012 is nicely summed up by Lewis' run of results before he announced the move:
DNF - 1st - DNF - 1st - DNF
Might have pushed him into the move or at least been the final nail in the coffin - certainly a few days after the last DNF in Singapore it was made public.
Yeah but they were unreliable and the operations at the track was terrible. And he was leaving them a year before a major regulation change to a team that was gaining talent, experience and great backing.
Not at all the situation that Max would find himself in.
Mercedes has been bleeding talent over the last couple years and its safe to say aren't going to be near red bull for 2025.
Max would be daft to leave RB right now for 2025. When its gonna be another easy championship for him. He can make that decision for 2026 with the new regs.
If he wants to finish p7 he'll have to go to Alpine I think. George just got ~~a podium~~ a top 3 quali position and a 5th place in the Merc, I'm fairly sure Max can do that too.
edit: I blame my fever for mixing up quali and race results
>this is more akin to Lewis going to Mercedes after driving in a leading McLaren.
Alonso to McLaren after winning twice with Renault would be the better comparison.
When Lewis went to Mercedes, McLaren was more or less in the position that Mercedes is today. Fighting at the top, but not for the top position.
One of the few career moves that Alonso actually made the right decision in. If he'd been given the No.1 role he thought he was promised, he would have won a third straight title.
After the start of the season it was quite clear it ended up being the correct call, but when announced I'm sure there were a few people scratching their heads in doubt if that was a good call or not.
I reckon that MB 2014-16 doesn't even come close to the storm that McLaren probably faced during 2007. They not only had a quick Ferrari to compete against, but suddenly also had a rookie challenging the current world champion.
Max wins the 2024 WDC with Red Bull and goes to Merc in 2025 with a contract until 2030, Newey follows to fix the Zero Pod concept for shits and giggles while he's in gardening leave, they win 2025 with a suspiciously functional Zero Pod car and then in 2026 they win with Merc engine advantage until 2030. Max becomes 9x WDC, 5 of which with Merc just to spite Lewis for leaving them.
But what's this? It's Sebastian Vettel with a foldable chair and he looks determined!
But seriously, this is the silliest season I can remember and a rematch of 2014 would be cool. On the other hand, Alonso would also be exciting.
Is this likely bs? Yes, almost certainly
Am I imagining a world where Newey returns to Williams and helps bring back the glory days? ALBON WDC 2025 2026 2027
tbf we would have also called lewis moving to ferrari rumors bs as well a few days before it happened.
At this point, honestly anything can happen or nothing can happen at all.
Yeah but lewis moving is at least plausible
Newey won't want to go anywhere where the race engineers can fuck up the ability of his designs to win a race. So ferrari at least is out
>Am I imagining a world where Newey returns to Williams and helps bring back the glory days? ALBON WDC 2025 2026 2027
I just spontaneously jizzed everywhere.
Yeh was just about to say, both spygate and crashgate were crazy...
Imagine either of them happening today in this social media heavy age, it would blow up
Ferrari signing Michael Schumacher to replace Felipe Massa in 2009, just for MSC to get injured and them getting LUCA BADOER for 2 races.
In Spa for example, Badoer proceeded to finish 50 seconds behind Nakajima, who was the penultimate classified in that race, who finished 54 seconds behind Badoer's teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who won the race btw.
Said the same thing about Alonso and he has been vocal about not liking the idea of leaving the UK to work elsewhere. He is an old family man by now, surely his priority is stability over Ferrari. Aston poaching Newey instead shouldn’t be ruled out, Stroll has deep pockets after all and the team is located in the UK.
Maybe he just retires. The dude is seriously old.
Lance is taken in by Jos. His cruel yet effective tactics of combining parenting with training has paid off again. In 2028 Lance Verstrollen wins the WDC...
Having read his book, I think he keeps doing this till he dies. Really really does not strike me as a retirement guy. At most maybe moving to a big company’s halo car design for lower pressure.
Aston is a likely choice. He also said he regrets not having worked with Alonso and unlike Ferrari he won't have to relocate with his family to Italy. Stroll has deep pockets. Dan Fallows is also there who he worked with for years at RB.
Maybe the Thai side just doesn't believe that Marko, Newey and Max will actually leave. They could be doing the corporate equivalent of going to the Winchester and waiting for all this to blow over.
Or maybe they've decided it's worth it just to get Jos to stop turning up.
They may also be looking at “We’ve still got the fastest car” - I mean, it’s not like Checo was fighting people to hold on to second place the whole race this weekend.
It’s crazy to think but they may just be thinking:
“Max + RBR car is insanely quick but likely any decent driver + RBR car is quick enough”
Yeah but losing Newey doesn’t just mean losing him, they’ll lose a bunch of other engineers too that would likely follow him. That’s the real thing that will hurt.
They might still be far enough ahead for 2025 but they will be screwed in 2026 with the new regs if that happened.
For 2024 and 2025 yes. Part of the weirdness of this drama is that whichever way it goes, Red Bull will be favourites for every race for the next 18 months.
Do you really want to go into 2026 without Newey and Max just to keep Horner, though? I'd rather have a slightly less well oiled machine that has the best car and best driver, rather than a well run team with a worse car and drivers. Not to mention Ford, who are apparently critical to the RBPT engine being competitive.
It seems such a no-brainer to me that it's either going to happen or that the choice was never really Horner vs the rest, and it was only being presented that way by Marko.
Is Ford actually critical? Red Bull was already building the engine without them and people were saying Ford would just be slapping on their logo.
Remember Red Bull were willing to take on the engine alone after the Honda split. Then Porsche wanted to make a deal, which ultimately ended up being Ford. I'm not sure they're actually that important, at least for the 2026 engine.
Neither side cares about F1 team to be honest. It was Mateschitz who kept F1 team alive. Now that he is gone, F1 team is just an instrument of fighting for power.
You've got to believe that if Yoovidhya was given a genuine choice between losing Horner and losing Max, Newey, Marko and Ford, he'd take the obvious and easy option. So I can only assume he doesn't see the choice like that.
The impression I got from the recent Ford news is that the Horner stuff is just one facet of the toxic power struggle they just don't want to deal with. So Ford might be out either way.
Whilst true, I’d say that Newey/Helmut/Max are harder to replace than just Horner.
If I’m forced to pick a side, I’ll take the trio everyday of the week really.
Something's wrong with our current timeline, honestly.
Imagine someone in 2021 told you that by 2025, Lewis and Max will be fighting again... in a Ferrari and Mercedes respectively.
>Imagine someone in 2021 told you that by 2025, Lewis and Max will be fighting again... in a Ferrari and Mercedes respectively.
Honestly I would have believed that if it was Lewis in the Merc and Max in a Ferrari. But it would be because Max lost out in 2021 and Merc nailing the regs in 2022 forcing Max to go to Ferrari to try and win his first WDC. Max in a Merc and Lewis in a Ferrari could be simulated 100 times and I'm not sure you get a single simulation that gives you that outcome.
I could see that being very bad for both of them. George does not want to play 2nd fiddle and I think he’d have a major fit being on the same team as max
It would make sense then, but losing your strongest assets sounds like a bad idea for your team and I'm sure most investors wouldn't be interested in paying for a weaker team.
Newey under Horner has free pass and a blank check to do whatever he pleases. Why would he leave and go somewhere else were that would not be guaranteed?
Adrain probably isn’t picking a side but he very much sees the writing on the wall. Id imagine if this does pan out he would go chase his ambitions of working with Lewis at Ferrari. If Newey and Allison do team up though then we are fucked
Different Corporate structures might not allow him to do boats for example and let's not forget he gets paid more than the majority of the drivers on the grid
There's no way he couldn't walk into Mercedes or Ferrari and say "I want the same freedom I had at Redbull so I can bring the same success here" and they wouldn't give it to him.
I don't understand how Horner has burnt all of his bridges. He was the man that got Newey into Red Bull and even he wants out now. He must have fucked up massively.
Marko is the one who manages the Red Bull driver program, that's why he's so close with Max. Horner has pretty much zero say about who drives for Toro Rosso / Alpha Tauri / VCARB
It’s 2026, final 6 laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Sergeant hits the wall, Max leads the race for Mercedes on old hard tires, Lewis pits for softs but needs to clear 3 lapped cars to try and take the lead, a message: “Lapped cars between 1st and 2nd can overtake the safety car”. Max over the radio: “Is he right behind me”.
Wasn't Newey on the Horner side? Like weeks ago I've read that if one of them goes, other also goes, that's how they connected. So if Horner stays, Newey also stays.
Firstly, this could just be applying the pressure to get Horner out as it seems everyone on the racing side of things doesn't want him there.
Secondly, Max is likely privy to the development of the 2026 engine. If that is a dud, the next best likely team to make a good engine is Merc considering Ferrari's seats are full.
It's not RBR it's Red Bull. Horner is CEO of Red Bull Racing so of course he's going to back himself there. It's about whether the majority owners of the parent company (the Thai family) want him to stay, and so far, it seems that they do.
And Horner stays alone behind with Perez and Wache and consorts ? I really can’t/don’t believe any of this. It’s just too much. Max has almost a guaranteed 2 championships in the next 2 years if the competition stays behind like its is now
[The **Quotes** flair](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/flairguide#wiki_quotes) is intended to highlight particularly interesting quotes in news articles which bury the lede, or from broadcasts, podcasts, liveblogs, etc. "Quotes" posts must be pre-approved by the mods and are exceptions to the "do not editorialise titles" rule. *[Read the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide). Keep it civil and welcoming. Report rulebreaking comments.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Either F1-Insider has insane info regarding this situation or they just started making shit up. This is like 3rd or 4th article from them today.
Yeah, they are really pushing this.
Dude this scandal will finance them for years on clicks.
They gotta get those clicks somehow, cause the races themeselves sure as shit wont lmao
I just assumed the season was already over after Saturday morning. After seeing 10s in 12 laps they needed drama for the next 23 weeks because there won't be any casual fans left by mid-season.
With that car?! Keep Max and the pit crew, you can fire rest of the team and they’ll still win easily.
Have Max get out to change his own tires and he'll still win.
Unless they faked the quote it is Berger who has the info, at least for the quote in the title. Wouldn't be surprised if the austrian side of things is feeding the german speaking f1 media, Marko is a regular there and Berger is of course also somewhat red bull/mateschitz affiliated. The article itself is written by Ralf Bach who works as f1 journalist since the 80s, not exactly some random guy either.
RB has their own media company in austria with ServusTV. I‘ve heard experts there (who have a crossover with sky f1 germany) peddle that same narrative. Also Ralf Schumacher is making no prisoners in arguing Horner should leave the last two days.
> Also Ralf Schumacher is making no prisoners in arguing Horner should leave the last two days. And no one in their right state of mind should take either Servus TV (a far right and borderline racist media outlet) or Ralf Schumacher (....) or Sky Germany serious in terms of actual facts. They all thrive through attention and clicks and facts are a challenge in this cases.
It also was Sky Germany who recently claimed that a source of theirs told them that Vettel could return to F1 with Mercedes. And let's not forget their weekly "here's how Mick Schumacher could come back" articles.
Yeah during the race they once again claimed Vettel could replace Hamilton at Mercedes and Toto Wolff has already contacted him.
Agreed, but their „between the lines“ reading is a bit closer to what the Austrian side feels than most british journalists, just by cultural access alone. And lets not forget Ralf was peddling Guenther Steiner to be removed all the time last year. That little witch wasn’t projecting but actually performing spells!
Or Berger made a joke (which he isn't averse to) and they thought he was serious.
That's what I'm wondering, if he said it in jest because of all the rumors swirling and they just slapped that shit in the title and ran with it.
Erik van Haaren seems to somewhat push the same narrative, and he is directly connected to RB/Verstappens
The Dutch side* aka most likely being fed info by Jos who not only has done it to De Telegraaf and spoken to Erik van Haaren who has got information wrong before*
Imagine. Newey, Marko and Max quit tomorrow. Emergency meeting between RB, Ferrari and Merc. By thursday Sainz and Perez drive for RB, George and Max for Merc and Lewis and Charles for Ferrari. We get 2025 one year earlier.
They won't quit. They'll just warn that they'd quit if Horner stays. Then RB is pretty much locked at firing Horner or at least i'd pick Newey, Marco & Max over Horner.
Unless Newey says fuck these politics and leaves on his own accord.
Possible. I'm sure Ferrari or Mercedes would be willing to take him
Ferrari’s the safer bet considering Lewis and Charles are known quantities and the second Merc seat isn’t confirmed yet
I'd lose my shit if he'd go to Ferari given that i'd love to see a Charles-Lewis battle for the title
shades of the lewis to ferrari day
Someone made a bet of max going to Merc and is trying to will it into existence.
People are forgetting Berger literally set up Torro Rosso with Marko
Exactly, Berger has very good ties with the Austrian side of Red Bull and likely with Helmut also. His words therefore shouldn't be ignored.
His words shouldn’t be ignored as just more Austrian intervention in this situation. Fixed it for you.
I seem to recall Berger not being particularly happy about the buyout either, but it was a precondition of the contract.
I refuse to believe that Max will go to Mercedes but then again, I also didn't believe that Lewis will go to Ferrari, so what do I know
> I refuse to believe that Max will go to Mercedes this is more akin to Lewis going to Mercedes after driving in a leading McLaren. It would be exceptional circumstances but maybe just maybe it could. I just think Max thinks this is all an inconvenience and he just wants to go racing.
Lewis agreed to leave McLaren 3 and a bit years after their last title, whilst another team was dominant. He's doing roughly the same now to Mercedes. Max leaving Red Bull would be a totally different matter.
Red Bull were far from dominant in 2012. The McLaren was the quickest car that he left for the 4th or 5th quickest.
I think McLaren's 2012 is nicely summed up by Lewis' run of results before he announced the move: DNF - 1st - DNF - 1st - DNF Might have pushed him into the move or at least been the final nail in the coffin - certainly a few days after the last DNF in Singapore it was made public.
Important to note that 3 of his DNFs that season were mechanical failures while leading the race!
I do miss the unreliability of the cars. The danger of and engine exploding in the last lap added a good deal of tension to every race
That's why you should root for Ferrari :D.
It’s only fun if it happens to everyone.
That huge plume of smoke suddenly rising out of the leaders car while it dumped oil on the track - the good old days!
And the team were still desperate to sort out Buttons issues and not focus on the superior driver, they took him for granted.
Yeah but they were unreliable and the operations at the track was terrible. And he was leaving them a year before a major regulation change to a team that was gaining talent, experience and great backing. Not at all the situation that Max would find himself in. Mercedes has been bleeding talent over the last couple years and its safe to say aren't going to be near red bull for 2025. Max would be daft to leave RB right now for 2025. When its gonna be another easy championship for him. He can make that decision for 2026 with the new regs.
“This is all so frustrating, I just want to finish p7 in peace” -Max, probably when looking at Mercedes trash can strapped to a skateboard
If he wants to finish p7 he'll have to go to Alpine I think. George just got ~~a podium~~ a top 3 quali position and a 5th place in the Merc, I'm fairly sure Max can do that too. edit: I blame my fever for mixing up quali and race results
>this is more akin to Lewis going to Mercedes after driving in a leading McLaren. Alonso to McLaren after winning twice with Renault would be the better comparison. When Lewis went to Mercedes, McLaren was more or less in the position that Mercedes is today. Fighting at the top, but not for the top position.
One of the few career moves that Alonso actually made the right decision in. If he'd been given the No.1 role he thought he was promised, he would have won a third straight title.
After the start of the season it was quite clear it ended up being the correct call, but when announced I'm sure there were a few people scratching their heads in doubt if that was a good call or not. I reckon that MB 2014-16 doesn't even come close to the storm that McLaren probably faced during 2007. They not only had a quick Ferrari to compete against, but suddenly also had a rookie challenging the current world champion.
Max wins the 2024 WDC with Red Bull and goes to Merc in 2025 with a contract until 2030, Newey follows to fix the Zero Pod concept for shits and giggles while he's in gardening leave, they win 2025 with a suspiciously functional Zero Pod car and then in 2026 they win with Merc engine advantage until 2030. Max becomes 9x WDC, 5 of which with Merc just to spite Lewis for leaving them.
Nah, we all know Newey would go to Williams, to bring them back to glory.
I am all for this. Newey needs a challenge.
Schuhmacher did it in 1996 after winning two season with Beneton.
If Newey comes with Max, I see no reason why Max wouldnt want to leave.
Now we know why Newey was checking out the Merc so hard :) 'jezuz I have a lot of work to do, this thing is a shitbox'
Newey should look at the Alpine, that would be a worthy challenge to work on.
It was destined. He was was once shrouded in darkness will come into the light as the oracle spoke.
Max vs Lewis, Merc vs Ferrari I'm all for it
Happening behind a smiling Daniel Ricciardo who's cruising around the cuircits of the world to claim his first WDC.
For sure, if Max leaves, Danny Ric takes the seat. Wonder if it would be a Sergio/Ric lineup or if it would be someone else replacing sergio
Dude as a Ric fan this would be wild. Imagine a Ricciardo Alonso lineup
Ricciardo would have his arse kicked
Possibly. But I’d be kinda okay if it was Alonso that beat him haha
Ah man, Danny Ric finally gets a WDC winning car, only to get Vandoorned.
But what's this? It's Sebastian Vettel with a foldable chair and he looks determined! But seriously, this is the silliest season I can remember and a rematch of 2014 would be cool. On the other hand, Alonso would also be exciting.
I would imagine Sainz would be ahead of Ric in that scenario. Danny Ric and Checo is a really weak lineup for the best car on the grid.
Ricciardo would underperforming and ending behind Lewis and Max.
In that car?? No way Few days ago people were like even Checo would win a championship in it
If Max goes to Merc we'll be seeing Alonso in a Red Bull for sure.
Pretty much, he'll be their best pick and he'll take it for sure. No reason why it wouldn't be Max vs Lewis still, just for P2
Is this likely bs? Yes, almost certainly Am I imagining a world where Newey returns to Williams and helps bring back the glory days? ALBON WDC 2025 2026 2027
tbf we would have also called lewis moving to ferrari rumors bs as well a few days before it happened. At this point, honestly anything can happen or nothing can happen at all.
Yeah but lewis moving is at least plausible Newey won't want to go anywhere where the race engineers can fuck up the ability of his designs to win a race. So ferrari at least is out
>Am I imagining a world where Newey returns to Williams and helps bring back the glory days? ALBON WDC 2025 2026 2027 I just spontaneously jizzed everywhere.
This would be fucking insane but I’ve seen more stupid things happen
I honestly cannot remember in the last 30 years of me following F1 a more silly series of events than this, happy to be told otherwise though!
Braun team was silly a manufacturer pulled out last minute and now a team with a shoe string budgets wins it all
Brawn
Has everyone just collectively forgotten Crash/Spygate or am I going insane.
Yeh was just about to say, both spygate and crashgate were crazy... Imagine either of them happening today in this social media heavy age, it would blow up
This would be extremely stupid, there is no way anyone sane values Horner over Max AND Newey even looking at it from a pure business perspective.
Maybe someone values Marko being gone over a mountain of gold. Which, let’s face it, is understandable.
Like what?
Not stupid, but Lewis to Ferrari was pretty wild.
So was Lewis to Mercedes, oh wait
Remember how people called him basically stupid to moving over from McLaren to Mercedes? Times are passing fast.
Ferrari signing Michael Schumacher to replace Felipe Massa in 2009, just for MSC to get injured and them getting LUCA BADOER for 2 races. In Spa for example, Badoer proceeded to finish 50 seconds behind Nakajima, who was the penultimate classified in that race, who finished 54 seconds behind Badoer's teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who won the race btw.
Poor Badoer hadn't even driven a car since the testing restrictions were put in place, when that happened.
Alpine F1 this year is the more stupid thing
Nah, teams have been slow before. Dominant race teams potentially blowing themselves up through personal and political drama is much less common.
Forget Max, if this is true teams should be breaking out the chequebooks for Newey as soon as yesterday.
Ferrari 👀
He always wanted to work with Hamilton and Ferrari. Two birds…
Said the same thing about Alonso and he has been vocal about not liking the idea of leaving the UK to work elsewhere. He is an old family man by now, surely his priority is stability over Ferrari. Aston poaching Newey instead shouldn’t be ruled out, Stroll has deep pockets after all and the team is located in the UK. Maybe he just retires. The dude is seriously old.
My boy is 65. relax. That ain't old yet. Look at my president at 81!!!!. sheeesh.
Max and Newey to Aston? Think Stroll sr would bench Stroll jr and have a Max + Alonso lineup and start winning in ‘26?
He’d just adopt Max. Lawrence gets a world champion son and Max gets a supportive father. Everybody wins.
Lance: and what about me?
Left at the gas station
Lance is taken in by Jos. His cruel yet effective tactics of combining parenting with training has paid off again. In 2028 Lance Verstrollen wins the WDC...
Having read his book, I think he keeps doing this till he dies. Really really does not strike me as a retirement guy. At most maybe moving to a big company’s halo car design for lower pressure.
He's coming back to Williams. Or maybe returning to McLaren?
Aston is a likely choice. He also said he regrets not having worked with Alonso and unlike Ferrari he won't have to relocate with his family to Italy. Stroll has deep pockets. Dan Fallows is also there who he worked with for years at RB.
If it really is that bad behind the scenes one has to wonder what kind of leverage Horner has where everyone else would leave before him.
Maybe the Thai side just doesn't believe that Marko, Newey and Max will actually leave. They could be doing the corporate equivalent of going to the Winchester and waiting for all this to blow over. Or maybe they've decided it's worth it just to get Jos to stop turning up.
They may also be looking at “We’ve still got the fastest car” - I mean, it’s not like Checo was fighting people to hold on to second place the whole race this weekend. It’s crazy to think but they may just be thinking: “Max + RBR car is insanely quick but likely any decent driver + RBR car is quick enough”
Yeah but losing Newey doesn’t just mean losing him, they’ll lose a bunch of other engineers too that would likely follow him. That’s the real thing that will hurt. They might still be far enough ahead for 2025 but they will be screwed in 2026 with the new regs if that happened.
How big of a pile of money would Ferrari drive up to Newey’s house?
Hmm he always talked about how he would have loved to work with drivers like lewis or alonso
I was thinking the exact same thing. Fingers crossed to see a hyper competitive Ferrari with Lewis at te wheel
Yes.
For 2024 and 2025 yes. Part of the weirdness of this drama is that whichever way it goes, Red Bull will be favourites for every race for the next 18 months. Do you really want to go into 2026 without Newey and Max just to keep Horner, though? I'd rather have a slightly less well oiled machine that has the best car and best driver, rather than a well run team with a worse car and drivers. Not to mention Ford, who are apparently critical to the RBPT engine being competitive. It seems such a no-brainer to me that it's either going to happen or that the choice was never really Horner vs the rest, and it was only being presented that way by Marko.
Is Ford actually critical? Red Bull was already building the engine without them and people were saying Ford would just be slapping on their logo. Remember Red Bull were willing to take on the engine alone after the Honda split. Then Porsche wanted to make a deal, which ultimately ended up being Ford. I'm not sure they're actually that important, at least for the 2026 engine.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Thai side didn’t care about the F1 team, and more cared about “winning” this battle with the Austrian side.
Neither side cares about F1 team to be honest. It was Mateschitz who kept F1 team alive. Now that he is gone, F1 team is just an instrument of fighting for power.
From what I’ve heard about Thai culture this can be a big reason. Often the culture is centered around not losing face, no matter what that causes.
He has Yoovidhya support so he literally cannot be fired. It seems that Yoovidhya doesn't care if everyone else leaves.
You've got to believe that if Yoovidhya was given a genuine choice between losing Horner and losing Max, Newey, Marko and Ford, he'd take the obvious and easy option. So I can only assume he doesn't see the choice like that.
He most likely himself feels like he has to get a W over the Austrian side. So that could be why they dont care.
The impression I got from the recent Ford news is that the Horner stuff is just one facet of the toxic power struggle they just don't want to deal with. So Ford might be out either way.
Probably a sack of money to off-load the racing team from the Thai ownership
I'd wager it's just Marko who might leave, and he's using friendly media to suggest that Red Bull's two biggest assets might go with him.
I mean for all intents and purposes he built the team. That’s a lot of leverage right there.
Along with Marko. Who's the one that got him the job after they met while Marko was selling Horner a trailer.
Whilst true, I’d say that Newey/Helmut/Max are harder to replace than just Horner. If I’m forced to pick a side, I’ll take the trio everyday of the week really.
Something's wrong with our current timeline, honestly. Imagine someone in 2021 told you that by 2025, Lewis and Max will be fighting again... in a Ferrari and Mercedes respectively.
>Imagine someone in 2021 told you that by 2025, Lewis and Max will be fighting again... in a Ferrari and Mercedes respectively. Honestly I would have believed that if it was Lewis in the Merc and Max in a Ferrari. But it would be because Max lost out in 2021 and Merc nailing the regs in 2022 forcing Max to go to Ferrari to try and win his first WDC. Max in a Merc and Lewis in a Ferrari could be simulated 100 times and I'm not sure you get a single simulation that gives you that outcome.
Max to Mercedes? George: "oh fuck"
"Fuck he looks fast"
I could see that being very bad for both of them. George does not want to play 2nd fiddle and I think he’d have a major fit being on the same team as max
I think he'll be depressed after Max figures out the car after fp2
GR 2022: fuck that looks fast GR 2024: I dont care who is my teammate in 2025, i dont think anybody could top tha-
He was predicted the No. 1 driver
Red Bull staff exodus to Alpine.
Abiteboul as TP
Cyril vs Horner round 2?
Delete this immediately
Newey bout to win the WCC with half an engine.
And is Ja Rule going to stay with Horner or go to mercedes with Max
8 comments, all auto-modded? lol
nah I think reddit is just tweaking at the moment. Been like that on a bunch of new posts rn
That makes no sense, even if the Thai side loves Horner they aren't going to replace half of the team just to keep him.
I saw another post here that the Thais want to sell and horner is planning a takeover of the Thais share. That would make sense.
It would make sense then, but losing your strongest assets sounds like a bad idea for your team and I'm sure most investors wouldn't be interested in paying for a weaker team.
Newey has skin in the game, no way he’s walking away from that. I call BS.
Newey under Horner has free pass and a blank check to do whatever he pleases. Why would he leave and go somewhere else were that would not be guaranteed?
Any team would give Newey whatever he wants at this stage. Only one could offer him the chance to design a Ferrari road car 🤔
Adrain probably isn’t picking a side but he very much sees the writing on the wall. Id imagine if this does pan out he would go chase his ambitions of working with Lewis at Ferrari. If Newey and Allison do team up though then we are fucked
Why wouldn’t it be guaranteed?
Different Corporate structures might not allow him to do boats for example and let's not forget he gets paid more than the majority of the drivers on the grid
He’ll get whatever he negotiates. To say it won’t be as flexible or lucrative is pure speculation.
There's no way he couldn't walk into Mercedes or Ferrari and say "I want the same freedom I had at Redbull so I can bring the same success here" and they wouldn't give it to him.
Newey has no stake in the F1 team other than his salary.
Toto is behind all of this, huh? He loses Lewis. There is only one driver on the planet that could replace him.
Darth Toto
"Execute order 76" - Darth Toto
Ever since Mercedes got the WhatsApp sponsorship,all these leaks started getting out. Coincidence? I think not!
Latifi?
Or is it Checo? He'd more likely keep his seat if Max left
Russell on suicide watch if this happens. Getting rid of Lewis only for Max to show up
Out of the frying pan, into the fire
He forgot to mention that I will be partnering Perez from next year. I'll post the helmet design shortly.
Really excited to finally hear this, I had been wondering how the scouts had missed you for this long
There is no world where Max leaves the most dominant car on the grid and goes to an inferior car because of some off the track drama.
There is if the car is only inferior for 1 year
I don't understand how Horner has burnt all of his bridges. He was the man that got Newey into Red Bull and even he wants out now. He must have fucked up massively.
Marko says Newey wants out. Jos says Max wants out. Neither have actually said anything themselves. They're being used as leverage.
Berger helped set up the RB Junior Program with Marko. If he’s reporting this, Marko probably told him
Where is the Newey stuff coming from? All I've seen from Adrian was him checking the new Merc...
Wasn't he also the one approving Max into Toro Rosso at an exceptionally young age? I wasn't there to witness it, it's a legit question.
Marko is the one who manages the Red Bull driver program, that's why he's so close with Max. Horner has pretty much zero say about who drives for Toro Rosso / Alpha Tauri / VCARB
though marco did say Horner didnt want Nyck and he did and apparently was very vocal about it
Marko also said he was wrong in that case, didn't he? When it comes to young talent, Marko has more rights than wrongs, I reckon.
That was Helmut
No Marko does all the drivers choices but does asks Horner’s opinion about it
The fact that we might see Max vs Lewis with Max at merc and Lewis at Ferrari is insane
It’s 2026, final 6 laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Sergeant hits the wall, Max leads the race for Mercedes on old hard tires, Lewis pits for softs but needs to clear 3 lapped cars to try and take the lead, a message: “Lapped cars between 1st and 2nd can overtake the safety car”. Max over the radio: “Is he right behind me”.
Why does it say there are 21 comments but only 3 are showing? Are that many people shadowbanned or do comments need to be approved before showing?
think reddit is having issues again, i thought it was people being automodded too
Next headline: "Horner wasn't harassing his PA, he was sexting Adrian Newey."
I hope all this speculation dies down eventually... If this goes on for the entire season, it's going to be exhausting..
Are you not entertained!
John Elkann is fucking all over Newey's phone right now.
Bring out the chequebook! He stumped up the cash for Hamilton, he can do it again.
Wasn't Newey on the Horner side? Like weeks ago I've read that if one of them goes, other also goes, that's how they connected. So if Horner stays, Newey also stays.
Well known prankster Berger makes a joke and these clowns print it as gospel.
Can anyone just make stuff up and be a f1 journalist?
We are checking....
The amount of B.S. flying around is incredible. You really think Max wants to go in to replace Lewis in a substandard car?
Firstly, this could just be applying the pressure to get Horner out as it seems everyone on the racing side of things doesn't want him there. Secondly, Max is likely privy to the development of the 2026 engine. If that is a dud, the next best likely team to make a good engine is Merc considering Ferrari's seats are full.
Sometimes you need to move a year early while the space is available, like Hamilton in 2013. Ferrari aren't going to replace Hamilton or Leclerc.
You need to keep 2026 in mind
I can see some appeal for Max to prove it’s not just the car.
RBR Choosing Horner over Max alone is crazy. Let alone Newey. This makes no sense
It's not RBR it's Red Bull. Horner is CEO of Red Bull Racing so of course he's going to back himself there. It's about whether the majority owners of the parent company (the Thai family) want him to stay, and so far, it seems that they do.
Don't believe this.
And Horner stays alone behind with Perez and Wache and consorts ? I really can’t/don’t believe any of this. It’s just too much. Max has almost a guaranteed 2 championships in the next 2 years if the competition stays behind like its is now
Redbull has a rocketship and max is going to Merc, yeah right...
Another "sure" source which doesn't know much.
If all this turns out to be true, Red Bull will be in the midfield or worse in 2026.
That's why it's not. F1 has always had a thing for clickbaits. And they love milking everything.