Can you prove that? Do you have a list of the top ten drivers that do damage to their own cars(teams). I'll take the 2024 list IF you have it.
Netflix will enjoy getting this into their F1 'telenovela'. Interviews, and more, and less F1. Maybe a REDbull movie, a sequel to F1, a la Pitt? F1 has turned into the biggest 'soap' ever, bad actors, bad racing, boring racing, financial interests. F1 souvenirs getting sold, possibly they will go into the 'used undies' a la Japanese... And Flavio? Will he be canned too? It is time for him to go back. Where? Who cares. F1, has ceased to be F1. The days of the past are pathetically gone, when F1 was about F1, racing. Now, it has all become more and more as a mega billion industry. This is not racing. Viva Moto GP! F1 Sucks. I wished someone would tell me in a brief sentence, what is so great about it, and what will Geri do now, go back to music? And Horner can be her manager? Regards, Alberto
Red Bull hasn't found yet someone capable to drive to its maximum a car specifically suited to Max. They pay for it in the WCC: Red Bull has basically been a one-man team for a few years now.
Join the 21st century where everything is fake, superficial and senseless !! Don't rejoyce too quickly about MotoGP: the series has recently been bought from Dorna by Liberty !! We will see what comes in years to come.
I always thought Horner was driven by two things, receiving a peerage and severe Toto-envy. Spice wife, his country gentleman persona, and his Toto-like comments and behavior were a textbook public fake-it-til-ya-make-it performance. I wouldn’t be surprised that, in private, feelings of impostor syndrome tempered that into, or fueled, an effective and likable leader that people rallied around to create the dominating team that Red Bull became. However, about two years ago I noticed a change in that public persona. The upstart was now Lord Horner of Milton Keynes/Red Bull/F1. He had arrived. Around the same time, the team started to struggle and people started jumping ship, the Porsche/RBPU incident, the accusations came out, etc, etc, and now here we are. He might be one of those people who needs to prove something to the world and fall apart when they feel they are #1. If so, hope the firing knocks him back into wanting to show F1 he can do it again.
I would suspect Mateschitz was the one who made Horner a great TP; after he passed it took only some months for the magic to begin evaporating.
This fuels my thoughts that Red Bull Corporate wanted Horner out because of power and/or money. According to multiple reports, Sergio Perez had the highest merch sales of any driver. Apparently it wasn't even close. It's also well known that Perez brought in some hefty sponsorship money. Horner is the guy at the top and can be the one accountable for pulling the plug on Perez before his contract is up. Not only did Red Bull have to pay him out. Some say its $11m, some say $18m. Still multiple millions. Because Perez was dropped, multiple sponsors chose to leave Red Bull. Then on top of that, they lost the millions and millions in merch sales. I do not think that the Yoovidhya family cared that much about F1 racing. I don't think any of the top shareholders care that much about the racing. They care about the money. The actual money lost is a drop in the water relative to what Red Bull is worth or what these top share holders are worth, but that doesn't matter. It's the norm for these forbes type greedy bastards to only think about profits and money and it's bragging rights. Someone worth billions could support everyone in their family for generations and still have too much money to spend. It's never enough, they always want more. So it's not inconceivable that these people weren't too impressed with the financial lost that came with Perez, especially when it netted zero gain in performance on track. After you tally up the losses that came from dropping Perez, they also have fallen to 4th at best in the WCC which means a loss of at least $10m compared to 2024 just in F1 payouts. Then you factor in if Max leaves, they will be in the bottom 5, maybe even bottom 2 in the WCC and that's huge loss in every way that can be measured.
So the moral is, Ferrari should hire Perez - with LH and Perez they would make unprecedented merch sales.
Tinfoil hat time: Regarding Laurent Mekies' appointment - he worked at Arrows back in 2001 and 2002 and then at Minardi in 2003. Jos raced for both teams back then (Arrows in 2001, Minardi in 2003), so they know each other well. Could this mean Max will stay?
No. Mekies is going to have to start from scratch. He's got some BIIIIIG shoes to fill. I don't think Max wants to be around a "sinking ship."
Another tin foil theory: maybe Toto was feigning strong interest in Max replacing George - a bluff to destabilize RBR enough for them to remove his nemesis Horner, while also stranding Max at RBR. He knew Max had an exit clause, and also knew of the internal strife at RBR. Toto had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Then maybe i'm giving Toto too much credit, and/or i have too much idle time! Is he a vested member of the Piranha Club?
I spend 7 years as a bidirectional bull crap deflector:: the designers never got word of the BS management wanted and management never got wind of BS the designers wanted. It is not a fun job--BTW.
I’m not surprised by the timing. It’s break time so they get some time to do basic reorganizing. It needed to be done before season end in order to get ready for 2026, which would have been a daunting enough challenge even without the drama and resulting chaos. They couldn’t wait any longer with 2026 coming up fast.
They will complain to the Stewards that the drain is clogged, play the victim and blame others in classic Toxic Horner style!
Horner is caustic and SF should stay away from him. As mentioned earlier, Elkann and Co. will not give control to him. Adrian too pricey for changing regs. Min is already selling tire shine products on air with less enthusiasm than a Michelangelo Statue. The target should be Hannah! Whoo her with a villa in Tuscany, Milan Fashion Designer access or, even, Charles (Sorry Alexandra, but Team first . That's the missing piece of the puzzle. Vasseur should make ALL the men listen to her for 12 months. WCC guaranteed. Freddy looks brilliant, JK is wealthier, Tifosi happy. Prego.
No surprise why RedBull Corporate was happy to regain control over a number of functions given that Horner consolidated control of a number of RedBull items. Horner was not a shareholder or a Director. He was an 'employee'. https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-we-learned-christian-horner-red-bull-f1-exit-how-it-happened/ --The best theory that has emerged as to what really brought things to a head is that this was a decision that revolves around control of Red Bull's F1 operation - where perhaps some factions were unhappy about how much power Horner had: Team principal of Red Bull/CEO Head of powertrains(not an engineer at all lol) Exerted control over Racing Bulls and its marketing operation It is suggested that some within the wider Red Bull structure had become jealous and feared that the squad was rapidly becoming 'Horner Racing' rather than 'Red Bull Racing'. Horner was always of the belief that to succeed in F1, the person in charge had to be master of the team's destiny. And that meant being in charge of everything. It was this need for total control, for example, that scuppered a potential works deal with Porsche from 2026 as Horner argued corporate interference risked robbing Red Bull of its core strength of being a nimble racing team.-- ( The Porsche deal developed from Austria not Horner - RedBull GmbH wanted this deal). Ironic he thought nimble applied to a large Corporate Racing Entity. With him at the helm. An entity at a given size ceases to be 'nimble'. Not looking too nimble at the moment.
