OK so Max is a very good driver with the car tailored to him but I wonder how he would fair in a Merc? If I were Toto getting Max might sound good but coming with his dad might not be that appealing. Jos just destabilises things. I'm not sure Max is a great fit for Merc, OK so he is popular and a very good driver but his in car and media personality can't be that great for marketing can it? That said, with Red Bull haemorrhaging staff and if Merc can pull Max away they are taking out a competitive team for a few years.
The Jos part, I definitely get, but Toto has been pretty clear that he’d like Max - so unless you believe that was all to destabilise the competition and not real, I think he’s prepared to have/negotiate the baggage that comes with him. I’m not sure Mercedes F1 is the straight jacket you’d expect based on the car company’s image. They hired Schumacher with his reputation, Hamilton wasn’t perceived as exactly a clean driver when he was hired and definitely found Merc a less constrained environment than McLaren under Ron. I think the marketable personality thing is overblown, it’s not done e.g. Alonso, Raikonnen any harm and Verstappen in the British/English speaking press vs. Verstappen globally is another factor. All signs suggest to me that they’re prepared to reach an accommodation with Verstappen to get his performance/stop someone else getting it.
They should have probably pulled the trigger to try retain Newey and push Marko out the door at the same time. I hope he doesn't go to Ferrari, I'd hate to have to dislike the team, but he's bound to show up elsewhere though because love him or other, he certainly built a massively successful team
If there’s one thing I am pleased about in all this , it’s the Promotion of Alan Permane . Quite ironic that after Briatore sacked Permaine , it was Horner who said how good Permaine was , and that he would not be out of work long . I know it’s Miekes that has replaced Horner , but it has enabled Permaine promotion .
Horner announcing the news to the Red Bull factory: Interesting that he says he's still employed by Red Bull!!!! Sounds like a negotiated or contractual 'gardening leave' clause may have been activated. So it might be 12 months before he is allowed to join another team!
Didn’t get much gossip yesterday, but I did take a picture of the current Ferrari F1 car, so that was nice.
Lucky enough to meet and chat with Zak and Bruno Senna today. But none of that matters at all, because I also met Mika. And that is one of my life's favourite moments!
Just watched an interesting youtube vid on the 'J damper'. It's a bit techy but some interesting stuff including a bit on Spygate and how Renault/Benetton escaped punishment (I think Bernie may have been behind that i.e. McLaren £100 million fine for Ferrari docs - Renault £0 fine for McLaren Docs because they didn't understand them!)!
Turkey looking for a return to the F1 calendar it seems. Would be positive imo, it’s one of the better races/circuits that we’ve lost over the last few years.
I`d like to see that.Always looked forward to seeing Turkey GP. That turn 8 with the triple apex, fantastic !
Monaco debacle on for 2026 again! https://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/45884315/two-stop-monaco-rule-retained-2026-grand-prix
tbh I'd like to see every race become a mandatory 2 stop with them having to use H, M & S. That would shake it up a bit.
I think that it`s quite clear that these cars are now too big for the streets of Monaco and it`s now almost impossible to overtake,unless the driver of the car being passed is very cooperative. Perhaps a car of go-cart size could be designed and built by each team with, say a maximum of $75,000 spent on each car and keep that car for each years race only, I know it`s all about keeping to the buget cap but surely the FIA could make some allowances to try and save this race,that`s if they want to,as I`m sure that there are plenty of people would not care if it was scrapped and in some ways I think is that`s where it`s heading because it`s pretty sad when they`ve got to start making up special rules just for Monaco.
I've been watching F1 since 81, so I don't remember when they weren't too big for Monaco, it's a track that should've been removed decades ago. The only way to make it interesting would be to scrap the race and have time trial elimination akin to qualifying.
With 2 stop mandatory at other tracks at least you wouldn’t get the road block tactics you get at Monaco, but I’m not convinced it would work other than introducing lucky outlier results. The front cars still have to run long in the first stint to clear traffic behind and avoid getting stuck, so you then get left really with a sprint+ (a bit longer with a tyre stop). I do think more stops/more variation is good, but I think it’s better to have that more organically, with bigger pace gaps between the compounds, more linear degradation with wear and enough tyres per weekend to have choices. Pit lane speed limits don’t help, but it’s a real missed opportunity that so many new tracks don’t cut more of the circuit on pit entry/exit so as to minimise pit loss time.
