Anyone entering F1 with Porsche is likely to get taken over by Porsche as a full works team......and currently, RedBull or Mclaren want to keep their names in F1 for the long term. Andretti Racing might want to call Porsche and TRY to make a merger into F1, but with the notion that Porsche will more than likely want a 51% stake in the deal.
And this is why I would have thought that the Red Bull-Porsche partnership may have been perfect. Red Bull keeping 50% and becoming permanent title sponsor of a team named Red Bull Porsche. The marketing side of Red Bull being taken care of, and the brand Porsche prominent too. It may be a clash of culture that ruined the negotiations; on one side a group of individuals (Mateschizt, Marko, Horner, Newey) against a powerful corporate entity represented by nameless executives - that often doesn't work (Ferrari-Ford, for example). The media tend to accuse Horner for the failure, pretending he felt his position was threatened. Others say Red Bull's independence was at stake. The Andretti lead has no credibility, IMO. If the next F1 team has to be a start up, Porsche will be better off going on its own. That leave Haas and Williams, or nothing.
So much for RBR/Porsche, anyone need an engine supplier? https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.porsche-say-f1-remains-an-attractive-environment-after-ruling-out-red-bull.1D7N9E7a4iKWRmKQM4t5Gu.html
Porsche should just do a takeover bid on Wiliams. They want a front running team, their only chance with that was Red Bull. Mercedes, Ferrari, obviously out. Mclaren...they didn't want audi take over let alone Porsche. Alpine = Renault (unless they sell again), Aston Martin is with Mercedes in road cars as well (and Aston Martin Porsche I just don't see). So yeah. Buy Williams.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/horner-suggests-honda-could-help-2026-red-bull-f1-engine-project/10366723/ Horner suggests Honda could help 2026 Red Bull F1 engine project Christian Horner has suggested that Honda could provide technical help to the 2026 Red Bull Powertrains project, should the Japanese manufacturer decide to maintain a link to Formula 1. Image Unavailable, Please Login Porsche announced on Friday that its planned collaboration with Red Bull won’t be going ahead, leaving the latter free to pursue other potential partnerships. Honda ended its official involvement in grand prix racing at the end of 2022 ostensibly to focus its resources on electrification, having agreed to continue to supply its current power unit to Red Bull and AlphaTauri until the end of 2025. Subsequently, the company has hinted that it may pursue a 2026 F1 project after all, inevitably leading to speculation that Red Bull would change course and stick with Honda. Horner insists that Red Bull is too far down the road with its own project to abandon it and continue with Honda power. However, he didn’t rule out a potential collaboration, but only on the hybrid side of the power unit. Such a strategy would only work if Honda opted not to stay involved in its own right with a full PU project and pursue a partnership with a non-Red Bull team. “Our train has left the station for '26,” said Horner. “We have an engine and prototype running, we have all of the dynos commissioned, we're up and running. “Honda are a great company. They announced their withdrawal from F1 to focus their attention on the electrification of their products, moving away from the combustion engine. “So you would assume if they were to look at returning to F1, that would have to be taken into account. Whether or not there was some interest potentially on the battery side, and any potential synergies there, it could be an interesting discussion. “But the combustion and mechanical side of the engine, we're on a roadmap to 2026 that we're very happy with.” One complication of any such arrangement is that Honda support would potentially compromise Red Bull’s position as a new powertrain manufacturer for 2026, and the benefits that go with that, notably a higher cost cap limit. Horner is adamant that Red Bull Powertrains doesn’t need the support of an OEM and can build an entire power unit itself.
* Red Bull Powertrain is doing why Cosworth could/should have tried years ago, IMO. Kudos to them ! .
Helmut Marko believes Max Verstappen can secure 14 wins this season Helmut Marko has predicted Max Verstappen could reach 14 wins this season, which would set a record for the most in a single campaign. Before the 2021 season, Verstappen had 10 career wins to his name but now, just one and a half years later, he has more than trebled that figure. He has 31 wins in his career, the joint seventh most in F1 history alongside Nigel Mansell, and could quite easily break the record tally for the most in a single season. The record currently stands at 13 with both Michael Schumacher (2004) and Sebastian Vettel (2013) having achieved that figure.
Only if Max wins all 6 remaining races will he have the most races per season (obviously) but also most races in a season based on percentage. Ascari is currently the winner on that (6 out of 8, 75%, but of course very few races makes it easier), then there's schumacher (13 out of 18, 72.22%), then Vettel (13 out of 19, 68.42%). Max needs 16 wins to topple Vettel (and that would automatically topple Michael as well, at 72.72%). 17 (so all remaining races) would make him most races won on % of all time, at 72.22%. An extremely tall order.
33rd win for #33, at the place where he made his F1 weekend debut as a test driver, winning the title in the country of their engine supplier. On my birthday too...
This Formula 1 season has distilled into a sort of 'Challenge Max Verstappen' show - pick a grid position for the Red Bull driver and see if he can win. The answer has become, invariably, yes. In Hungary, at the beginning of August, Verstappen started 10th, and won. In Belgium, after the summer break, he was 15th on the grid, and won. At the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on Sunday, he started seventh. https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/62871454
Is the RB18 Dominant? Here are each "Dominant" Team's average pole margin since 2013. Image Unavailable, Please Login
We went from a competitive season pre-TD to now Formula Max and the 19 other guys. RBR was against it, Ferrari was against it. Merc pushed harder and harder every week, together with the British media saying something must be done. Horner said at the time the TD will not change a thing for Red Bull, no one believed him and Mercedes/British Media went with the story that RBR and Ferrari are definitely cheating and we'd see Mercedes run right at the front and win races on merit. Well. Seems that was yet another lie and now people are complaining. And funnily enough, there still is about as much bouncing as before. Seems the only thing the TD did was change Ferrari's and Mercedes' floor. Max's real challenge now for the remaining races is to see if he can win all of them or not, and break a series of records. Singapore is the hardest one for the red bull as that track doesn't play into it's strengths (which is long straights, medium too high speed corners). If he wins that, he stands a chance to beat most races in a row (needs 5 more), most races in a season (needs 3 more), most races in a season percentage wise (which will be an unbelievable achievement, breaking a 70 year old record when there were just 8 races a season...and he needs 6 in a row for that). What's incredible is that these records can be acheived with engine parity, with all engines within 1% of each other, and a car that wasn't dominant until a mid season change that they where against!
The difference seems to be Mr. Adrian Newey and his aero abilities. I think Max breaks the single season win record easily. As far as percentage of wins in a year, even more fun than one driver is the team record, clearly the MP4/4 McLaren in 88 with Senna/Prost taking 15/16 race wins. Oh, that was a Honda engine too.
EX Red Bull Employee on What Verstappen is REALLY Like! - YouTube Interesting interview with a former Red Bull employee, talks Horner, Dietrich, Helmut, Max. Interesting to hear that Max possesses one of Michael's qualiies (apart from driving, of course,), that he's really friendly with the staff and actually interested in their lives.
Let's face it, the combination Max Verstappen/Red Bull is head and shoulders above anything else at the moment. They have taken the mantle from Hamilton/Mercedes and are on a roll. There is no complain from me. The car is perfect, the organisation spot on, and Max is driving brillantly. Long may it last !!!
The 1988 scenario shows what happens when you let your 2 drivers fight each other: they share the wins and the points.
Sounds great, but let's not forget that RedBull has almost no competition from the rest of the grid, only Ferrari being strong on some occasions (and even then, they (Ferrari) are able to not win) and a very weakened Mercedes-AMG is fighting sometimes for a podium. So. Nothing really surprising he can start anywhere on the grid and still can win. The beginning of the season looked quite different, with Ferrari taking wins from RedBull, but after that, RedBull resolved their car into a best package and you can only envy Max driving such car.
Unverified reports coming that Dietrich Mateschitz is gravely ill, some even reported off Dietrich's death last night....
