2025 F1 Thread

TasMike
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Horner's own fault. He has spent the past five years building the team around Verstappen and now Frankenstein's monster has turned - Jos started his anti-Horner campaign last year. Now that the team has developed a car that only Max can drive, and consequently is the team's only significant points earner, he has too much control over the team for a driver - and Jos finally gets his way. Newey and Marshall saw it coming and bailed, followed by Wheatley and Courtenay. Not unusual for F1 to have personnel moving around, but there seems to have been a mass exodus from Red Bull.
 
Jakeys
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texasmade texasmade
My guess is if he was fired, he can go where ever he wants and RBR can't limit his employment opportunities. If he was on paid leave, then he's stuck with RBR until his paid leave/ is over.

His own statement indicates that "operationally" he is no longer involved, but that he is still employed by the company. That reads to me like they're essentially paying him gardening leave so he can't move to another team.

I wonder if this is to appease the Max/Marko camp (i.e. they're taking more power) to prevent Max signing with Mercedes, or is a response to Max having already signed with Mercedes. Or he's just made enough mistakes that the higher ups backing him have decided it's not worth it any more.

His track record with the team overall is awesome, but lately the team has been absolutely sucking ass and it's understandable that as the team principal responsibility for that does have to fall to him. Lost Newey and others, Max unhappy, screwed up giving Perez a huge contract extension when his performances were ass, car is dropping into the mid field, junior program is all over the place and not yielding results in the main team, and probably most importantly for the long term the rumours are the Ford partnership isn't yielding a good car for next year. Plus, the sexual harassment scandal. If I'm talent in F1, I jump off that sinking ship.
 
Pastorbottle
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Even by F1 standards, RB seems to have been a bit of a political viper's nest for some considerable time, it should come as no surprise that they should all eventually end up on the outer sooner or later........it's the very nature of the beast!
 
Evitzee
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All conjecture at this point, but it's hard to believe that with Horner gone RBs future will be sunny uplands with Max back on top in short order, that's where the egos and calculations of Max, his father, Marko and others will be exposed as hollow and foolish. 2025 is toast, 2026 will be difficult, at best. The remaining bunch at RB will become even more unhappy as the team flounders, so what will they have gained in the long run? They lost sight of what is ultimately important, winning races.
 
arturo7
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My guess is that the discontent been rumbling under the surface for years. They were winning championships so everyone stuck with it. Now that they're no longer on top, the organization is crumbling.
 
Vercingetorix
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Horner should run for FIA president. He will have no love for Red Bull.
 
MRC
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Rain forecast for Belgian GP race start today. Juicy!
Screenshot_2025-07-27-13-01-31-728.webp
 
fiberguy
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vbrad26 vbrad26
Pretty good drive from ol' Hammy, considering.
Given how his weekend started, I think it was a great drive. Wonder if he could have gotten past Albon if they would have put on the hards.
 
Jakeys
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vbrad26 vbrad26
Pretty good drive from ol' Hammy, considering.

Agreed, although not to stick the knife in but I wouldn't give him too huge a pat on the back, it was essentially an out of position recovery from a lousy qualifying. His qualifying gap isn't washed territory but it has been a bit bigger than I had hoped, and I do think he's aged past the peak of his performance and maybe hasn't fully accepted it.

1753748554592.webp


To be fair though, it is the first year with a new team and car he's not meshed well into. Besides, it was only a few years ago he was going head to head against Max. We'll see what the gap looks like at the end of the first year.
 
Pastorbottle
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Jakeys Jakeys
Agreed, although not to stick the knife in but I wouldn't give him too huge a pat on the back, it was essentially an out of position recovery from a lousy qualifying. His qualifying gap isn't washed territory but it has been a bit bigger than I had hoped, and I do think he's aged past the peak of his performance and maybe hasn't fully accepted it.

1753748554592.webp


To be fair though, it is the first year with a new team and car he's not meshed well into. Besides, it was only a few years ago he was going head to head against Max. We'll see what the gap looks like at the end of the first year.
Probably time to go count his millions $$$$$$$$$
 
vbrad26
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Yeah don't take my mild praise as any more than that lol.
I've honestly never been a huge fan of his. Especially in the last few years.
 
arturo7
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Great race in Zandvoort. Plenty of action.
Heartbreaker for Norris and LeClerc.
Amazing weekend for Hadjar.
Nice comeback for Haas: double points after starting in the rear.

Someone needs to tell Sir Lewis to stay off wet kerbs. Also hit with a 5 gridspot penalty for Monza. Has he lost his will to compete?
 
Evitzee
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Lewis is this year's Perez, lost his confidence and can't get work his way out of it. A difficult car to drive doesn't help.
 
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