2023-24 Formula 1 Off-Track Thread

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Famine
Also Alpine's technical director and head of aerodynamics have resigned after one race.

www.bbc.co.uk

Formula 1: Alpine pair resign after poor start at Bahrain GP

The Alpine team reorganise their design department in the wake of a poor start to the season and the departure of their technical boss.
www.bbc.co.uk

Waaaaay more interesting off the track than on!
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Read about this one over the weekend, apparently they handed in their resignations a few weeks back... presumably right after they realised what a dumpster they had produced.

www.autosport.com

Alpine facing fresh headache as F1 technical director and head of aero resign

www.autosport.com www.autosport.com
 
RACECAR
Between F1's push for the sprint race gimmick (basically, pandering to the DTS audience), the continually ballooning schedule and overall promotion that just screams "The show" with now THIS drama on top, I might be in over my head with this but I think this is the year Max quits F1. Doesn't matter that his car is good, doesn't matter that Newey has newey'd another work of dark magic to keep the whole grid at bay, doesn't matter if he even pulls off the 4 peat, this is likely the final straw for him to leave.

Also, just finding it rather intriguing that in the year where a 4th championship might happen Red Bull has yet another case of internal tension (Albeit its not with drivers this time but still). And we all know what happened the following season after that 4th consecutive championship...
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It would be wild for Redbull to implode while historically dominating the sport and getting a Hamilton Newey pairing at Ferrari out of this.
 
FoxMulder
It would be wild for Redbull to implode while historically dominating the sport and getting a Hamilton Newey pairing at Ferrari out of this.
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And if those reports about Bono going with him are true (Coupled with apparently Elkan being the main person who convinced Hamilton to come over), we might actually have ourselves a second Todt-Brawn-Schumacher dynasty in the making.
 
Cue mass speculation about Max leaving F1 and going to WEC/WRC/NASCAR.
 
Blitz24
Cue mass speculation about Max leaving F1 and going to WEC/WRC/NASCAR.
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Funny thing is, guess what he tends to sim race with almost everytime? I know rumors are rumors Buuut:

  • Max is increasingly disinterested with F1 (as he has voiced multiple times, even saying he doesn't see himself staying long)
  • He is supposedly starting up his own team (which I guarantee isn't a F1 team)
  • Seems to very much LOVE using Sports cars every time he's in the sim.

So as far as I can tell, I'm not at all gonna be shocked if not even a WEC move but something in ELMS, GTWC, IMSA, or whatever materializes.
 
Blitz24
Cue mass speculation about Max leaving F1 and going to WEC/WRC/NASCAR.
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This definitely feels more likely than going to Mercedes. He's seen where their car is, why waste a couple years of his life going from a dominating car to that? As Racecar has said, Max has already voiced his displeasure at the number of races, the media, & other things in F1 as well as possibly leaving after his current contract ends. Winning 1 title is all that mattered to him, he has 3 now (good possibility of 4). Might as well cut the career short & go straight into endurance racing like he's wanted to.
 
Max has a contract till 2028. 2029 could be too late to the party. The time is now for Le Mans. I hope the actual status of WEC and IMSA with lots of involved manufacturers will keep going for very long but I highly doubt it with so many manufacturers wanting to win in a boped class. It's only one (WEC) race in the books and the bop discussion around Porsche is already on 🤦‍♂️

But I can't just see Max leaving RB before 2026 or even 2027. Wouldn't fit with his I don't care about anything-mantra.
 
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And amidst all this drama, what makes you think he isn't already looking for a way out of it? Its going to destabilize the team and if Max's upbringing is anything to go by, the last thing he wants surrounding him is MORE drama. There's nothing more to be gained in F1 and no team is gonna be even remotely close to Red Bull in the immediate future so I guarantee finding a way out of that contract is at the very least somewhere on his mind.
 
toastet
Max has a contract till 2028. 2029 could be too late to the party. The time is now for Le Mans. I hope the actual status of WEC and IMSA with lots of involved manufacturers will keep going for very long but I highly doubt it with so many manufacturers wanting to win in a boped class. It's only one (WEC) race in the books and the bop discussion around Porsche is already on 🤦‍♂️

But I can't just see Max leaving RB before 2026 or even 2027. Wouldn't fit with his I don't care about anything-mantra.
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Apparently there is a clause in his contract that he’s free to go in the event that Marko leaves Red Bull.


And more investigation, this time the head honcho for influencing race results: https://www.telegraaf.nl/sport/1990...bemoeienis-met-tijdstraf-voor-fernando-alonso
 
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If Verstappen and Newey leave, at least fans are guaranteed to not have Red Bull running away at the top end of the grid.
 
RACECAR
Funny thing is, guess what he tends to sim race with almost everytime? I know rumors are rumors Buuut:

  • Max is increasingly disinterested with F1 (as he has voiced multiple times, even saying he doesn't see himself staying long)
  • He is supposedly starting up his own team (which I guarantee isn't a F1 team)
  • Seems to very much LOVE using Sports cars every time he's in the sim.

So as far as I can tell, I'm not at all gonna be shocked if not even a WEC move but something in ELMS, GTWC, IMSA, or whatever materializes.
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IIRC, isn't the sportscar class the most popular for the top road racers in iRacing?

On top of that, the most modern F1 car in it is a Mercedes that can't have custom liveries, I doubt RB would want him racing that.
 
While we're still racing in Jeddah they released a promo video for the upcoming permanent track in Qiddiya in the Six Flags Amusement Park:

 
Pretty mad this is all coming out now. Wonder if someone really didn't like MBS backing horny Horner and has decided to take everyone down?

Interesting to see how this develops.
 
Dennisch
This should be the big story in F1. Not Horney's teen sexcapedes.
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There's definitely a link though - MBS is buddies with Horner and the first part of this leak was that he asked Verstappen to be more of a Horner defender.

It seems like whoever's after Horner is going hard :lol:
 
Famine
There's definitely a link though - MBS is buddies with Horner and the first part of this leak was that he asked Verstappen to be more of a Horner defender.

It seems like whoever's after Horner is going hard :lol:
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So in the space of one race weekend, we have had internal team turmoil and suspicious activity at the top. All over one Horney man.
 
Tinfoil hat thinking; Steiner knew about all of this, said 'screw it' after losing his job at Haas and leaked it all.
 
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Wellllll, he's unemployed so no risk really. Light it up and watch the world burn while chilling on the couch.
 
www.dailymail.co.uk

Jos Verstappen 'spent time with' woman when Christian Horner texted

The two warring F1 giants 'never really saw eye to eye in the first place' but their friendship with the employee has 'caused even more difficulties' between them, an insider has told MailOnline.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk

'It seems that Jos was spending time with her while Christian was texting her, which has caused a lot of anger between the men who never really saw eye to eye in the first place', an insider said.
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