Formula 1 2024 – WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

New sponsor for Williams – should give them a lift for the 2024 season…

Might be digging a hole for themselves though.

Horner seems to be having an uncomfortable time at the moment…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/68205305

What is the actual complaint/allegation?

Is this going to fizzle out like the Wolfe allegations?

No one knows yet – I did chuckle at this comment to the allegations on Planet F1 though!…

“Inappropriate Conduct”

Vague enough to not actually mean anything.

Having too many sandwiches from the canteen? 

Horse riding in company time? 

That it’s gone public in such a big way suggests there’s more to it than just a disagreement between employees.

Top news story on a lot of the newspaper websites, not just F1 media.

Could be anything. I think that it is in the media is probably just the press office at Red Bull getting ahead of the story.

Horse riding in company time?

That’s no way to talk about a Spice girl!

He fell out with Helmet Markko, now it’s payback time.

It could be very minor, but the fact that Christian is the very face of Redbull, possibly in many ways, more than even MV – it was always going to be a big story.  RB had to try and control the narrative.  Now every media outlet is running their (RBs) release not some hypothetical situation that they’ve concocted based on rumours.

Sounds more serious than i was expecting.

? | The matter with Christian Horner has been going on behind closed doors for a while, as per @ErikvHaren.

Red Bull itself confirmed it to him, and are also the ones who started the investigation, not Red Bull Racing.

Erik says from what he’s heard the accusations are very… pic.twitter.com/ssxIWmYaKB

— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) February 5, 2024

It’s bizarrely such a big headline across all news outlets for for such a vague accusation that could be sexual, drugs, financial, bullying, inter team spying or a thing about wearing leather shorts, slapping his thighs whilst singing badly (hang on, scratch the last one – Austrian owned team so kind of a given).

https://x.com/fastestpitstop/status/1754556958361743694?s=46&t=EQoHg-RGok071Fjc15ZHKw

I follow various F1 reporters on Twitter, but that Fastest Pitstop account seem to be the only one pushing this?
I have read it on the BBC website, but am wondering if ‘the Internet’ is getting caught up in something?

EDIT : unless they are keeping quiet for legal reasons…

*something obliquely referencing cheating*

I have read it on the BBC website, but am wondering if ‘the Internet’ is getting caught up in something? 

Hype for a new season of Drive To Survive?🤔😄

@dawson

It’s all over F1 and mainstream media.

@ muffin-man – Yep it is now, just saw the piece on Sky F1 account 

I reckon financial shenanigans, based on little more than a gut feeling.

The new Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber (really???) car is very erm green…..

Thought they were sponsored by Kawasaki when I first looked at it!

Daily Mail headline (i know, i know):

Geri Halliwell’s husband Christian Horner faces allegations of ‘incredibly controlling behaviour’ by female colleague as he fights for his Red Bull future

Horner out, get Gunther Steiner back!

win/win

Horner out, get Gunther Steiner back!

win/win

I could even see myself cheering for Red Bull  if that happened!

This has been all over social media this morning – but now an official source. Horner hearing on Friday…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/68218956

In all the fuss about Horner, and the green paint on the Stake Sauber the Williams launch got largely ignored yesterday

I think thew green looks pretty good!

According to Joe Saward (who I think is generally reliable), it’s believed that Adrian Newey and Christian Horner have clauses in their contracts that they can walk if the other isn’t retained. Which means that losing Horner risks losing Newey. As dislikeable as I find Horner, he does deserve credit for building an incredible team. Losing him alone would be a serious blow. Risking losing both him and Newey would be catastrophic. My guess is that, unless he is facing criminal charges, Red Bull will pay off whoever complained and we’ll never know the details.

In all the fuss about Horner, and the green paint on the Stake Sauber the Williams launch got largely ignored yesterday

Probably because, compared to potential scandal and a complete colour change to fluro green, launching a livery only that is almost the same as last year except a slightly darker blue and even more exposed carbon is pretty uneventful.

Red Bull will pay off whoever complained and we’ll never know the details.

I’ve read that its a female employee who’s made the allegations. I think the days of that sort of thing (sweeping it under the carpet, nothing to see here) are past, are they not?

I think the days of that sort of thing (sweeping it under the carpet, nothing to see here) are past, are they not?

Aye. Apparently yer can’t count on the ladies to do the sweeping any longer… 🙃

Now how about Newey leaves and goes to Ferrari…….

Now how about Newey leaves and goes to Ferrari…….

Can’t see that happening at his age, and I doubt Ferrari would give him the freedom he has at Red Bull.

He’s expressed an interest in working with Fernando – so maybe consultant to Aston Martin (who he kinda works for already!).

And wouldn’t it be a crying shame if Red Bull fell apart and left Max with a mid-field chassis and a dodgy Ford engine in 2026! 🤔

And it transpires Hamilton joining Ferrari was part of his career plan all along…

‘A great way to end my F1 career’: when Hamilton revealed his Ferrari plan

It has long been believed that Christian Horner and Adrian Newey have contracts that protect one another. If one leaves the other can as well. This has never been confirmed – but it makes for an interesting dynamic if something was to happen to Horner… @JSBMnewsletter

— Joe Saward (@joesaward) February 6, 2024

Yey, F1 is interesting again. Not on track of course, those days have gone…

🙂

the daily fail was reporting that theres some back off schenanigans going on, with some folks back at Redbull HQ (as in the main company, not the F1 team) wanting Horner out, but the thai board members wanting to keep him.

And it transpires Hamilton joining Ferrari was part of his career plan all along…

Getting a Ferrari for your 40th is such a cliché though…

(Stolen from elsewhere)

Can’t see that happening at his age, and I doubt Ferrari would give him the freedom he has at Red Bull. He’s expressed an interest in working with Fernando

Fairly sure he’s also said he would have liked to have worked with Hamilton, and I’ve got a fiver that says Elkann’s been on the blower offering him a pretty free rein (assuming he’s got anything in the piggy bank after securing Hamilton). I mean, the chances of it happening are microscopic, let alone it happening and then the pair of them having the time to build a dominating car and team before they stand down… but it’s certainly fun to consider the possibilities. I mean… Hamilton and Newey in 2025? Italy would have to declare a week’s public holiday because everyone wouldn’t be turning up to work anyway, it’d be off the scale.

It was both he mentioned…

“Working with Fernando or Lewis [Hamilton] would have been fabulous, but it never happened,” he said. “It’s just circumstance, sometimes that’s the way it is.”

Phrased like that makes me wonder if he meant he maybe moved to RB a couple of years too early and missed out on that pairing at McLaren 🤔