Let's speculate!
Max leaves Red Bull
I’ve seen this (the big announcement stuff on socials)
Keep refreshing apps to see what it is. There’s a few options
- max to announce he’s leaving F1
- max to announce a move to McLaren
- Horner to announce he joined Aston
place your bets ladies and gentlemen.
Bet it's IndyCar related not F1
It was Indy car related. Bloody anticlimactic.
disappointing. Unsurprising, but still disappointingIt was Indy car related. Bloody anticlimactic.
THE-RACE.COM Scott Dixon signs with McLaren. Just in case anyone doesn't know Dixon's record, he's basically the Indycar equivalent of Hamilton and has been with Chip Ganassi for decades, so this is the equivalent of Hamilton dropping Merc and moving to Ferrari.
INDYCAR.COM I don’t see how changing the engine will make it cheaper. Teams will still spend just as much squeezing a bit more out of it. Is the plan to ban teams from choosing to buy an engine from another team so they have to develop their own or buy the f1 supplier engine.
I don’t see how changing the engine will make it cheaper.
I think the issue is that combining turbos and hybrids makes them very complex and expensive. As well as the development cost, there's also manufacturing cost. For engine manufacturers, the development cost has a cost cap, but they are also required to supply customers at a specified price. Reducing the hybrid side by 80% and removing the turbo should make the engines much lighter and less complex, and cheaper to build.
I think having Cosworth or someone produce a generic engine could be a great thing, but I'm very skeptical that teams like McLaren and Alpine will produce in-house engines. The last couple of years showed that a customer team with a decent engine can be competitive. Producing your own engine is a big risk for teams to take.
The idea is also to break the ties between manufacturers and customer teams - if Mercedes are in favour of something then mclaren Williams and alpine are likely to stand with them. The trouble is that they will always chase performance so if the generic PU is inferior to a manufacturer's unit they may accept the political leverage to get better results.
Interesting article on PlanetF1
Claims Max is closing in on a deal with McClaren. Not necessarily the most reliable source, but it does raise the question of who replaces him at RedBull.....straight swap for Piastri, or maybe Sainz?
I can't see the point of jumping to McLaren - they're currently on a par with Red Bull. And are proving that not having a works engine is a negative as they can't access the latest electronics trickery.
Perhaps the Verstappens should stop fighting with the team and start building. It's a new engine project with a new management team, times are going to be tough.
If he did go then 100% he would be replacing Pastri. He's not pulled up any trees since the middle of last season.
How would Max react to an equal status driver, given McLaren's "let them race" policy? Cant see it happening somehow
How would Max react to an equal status driver, given McLaren's "let them race" policy? Cant see it happening somehow
I'm not a big Max fan, but his teammates have always been allowed to race, they just haven't been fast enough to beat him, apart from Ricciardo when Max was just getting started. I'm pretty sure that Max is 100% confident that he could regularly beat any driver on the grid in equal machinery.
Lindblad would be the obvious candidate to replace Max, assuming Hadjar keeps looking competitive. Lindblad's a rookie, but he's looking very competitive against Lawson. Lawson is having a great year, but he seems like another Gasly or Albon, I can't see Red Bull promoting him to the big team again if he can't dominate a rookie teammate.
Would love for Alonso to get the Red Bull seat though, he deserves a competitive car, he's still driving extremely well (but then Red Bull would probably produce a dog of a car, Alonso would throw his toys out of the pram and quit mid-season, and Newey would turn AM around and win the title with Piastri).
I don't see there's a chance Alonso would get the RedBull seat....and where does Piastri end up in that scenario?
Has to be Piastri to RedBull not least cos Weber is his manager
I can't see the point of jumping to McLaren -
Me either. After all the shenanigans and skulduggery to get shot of Horner who the Verstappens targeted to make sure they had stronger grip on the team and ensure that Max would always retain a No1 spot and have the team formed around him as a driver, to then a couple of years later just abandon all that to move to another non-manufacturer team as 'just' another paid driver (regardless of his status) makes zero sense.
I'm not a big Max fan, but his teammates have always been allowed to race
Obviously Checo has his own agenda, but his telling of the situation at RB is rather different.
A Mercedes 2016 rerun with him and Norris at Mclaren with their racing rules in place would be pretty juicy.
