Gasly trying to woo Williams. That Alpine setup must be a bigger shitshow than just the car.
Gasly trying to woo Williams. That Alpine setup must be a bigger shitshow than just the car.
Silly season starting early?
Hulkenberg is off to Sauber next year.
Stop gap before Audi in 2026. Makes sense for him to get to know the team in advance.
So what’s the deal with Audi then, in 2026? Are they going to be a works team?
They're buying out Sauber(F1 STAKE Team Kick) and becoming a full works team in 2026. The new engine regs have them interested enough to come and play.
Shame that Sauber will no longer exist but probably for the best considering they’ve floundered for so long.
Sauber have in the past been a works Mercedes team (sportscars rather than F1 but the same sort of deal) and a works BMW team and retained their identity through both, they lack Peters involvement this time around but I reckon they'll be fine. Hulkenburg makes sense as a safe pair of hands, is this his second or third stint with the team?
Williams are the ones to worry about, really. Got the car sorted so late they didn't have spares and there's new regs round the corner.
James Vowles got in there to find that the only way of managing inventory was manually updating one single excel spreadsheet. They had no idea where anything was in the factory.
They've had to fix everything behind the scenes before they could crack on with the car. The car ending up in the wall several times has just made everything so much harder.
Just going back to the news of Newey leaving Red Bull, I wonder if this will be a catalyst for Max leaving. The whispers have been there since the Horner accusations and Toto has been making comments in the media recently. I really wouldn’t be surprised to see him leave either at the end of this year or at the end of 2025.
Where does he go?
Why don't they just sack Christian Horner?
Red Bulls F1 team has two major parties involved in the ownership. The Austrian side has 49% and the Thais own 51%Originally Posted by Lewis
He has the backing of the Thai side so they can't oust him.
Yeah but presumably that backing will dissolve if it seriously comes down to either keeping him or keeping the people who design and drive the car so well.
You would think so, but yet one is leaving and the other threatening to and still he remains in his job.
And the one leaving is 65 so it's not like it wasn't coming in the relatively near future. Any gardening leave could take him closer to 70 which makes me think he's packing in completely.
Horner would argue that he was there before Newey, brought him in and kept him happy for twenty years or so, oversaw the rise and success of Vettel, managed the transition away from shitty Renault to competitive Honda, snatched Verstappen from under Mercedes nose and moulded him into the best driver of his generation.
Merc are obviously interested but not sure Verstappen would accept that shit box of a car. They’ve outright failed every year to understand these new regs.
He goes to Mercedes if he thinks he can change them. I don't think he's at that stage of his career, though.
If he does any more F1 surely it'll be with Ferrari, for pretty much the same reasons that Hamilton is going there.
There are probably still soil marks on the skirting boards at McLaren where Ron Dennis kicked the plant pots over arguing with him in the early 2000s.
Would he want to go to Ferrari with Hamilton?
Mahow and Tom (and Shindig I'm assuming) are talking about Verstappen, while you're talking about Newey.
Oh. Max isn't leaving.
It does seem an insane move but it all hinges on who he thinks will be on top for the new 2026 engine regs. Are Red Bull still going with Ford? Without Newey are they still a better bet than Mercedes because if not then now is the time to move not in two years when there may not be an opening.
Or fuck it up like Alonso did and watch your early titles drift further and further into history.
Without any really obvious rivals he could probably just Fangio himself into the best car at any given time. F1 contracts never seem to be all that long nowadays and I'm pretty sure every team would have a strategy to get him in their car if it were possible.
His current contract runs until 2028 for what it's worth.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/c84z8qklqvzo
Alright, bitter legal proceedings. Bring it on.
Probably the one sport where a non-compete actually matters. Dan Ashworth can advise on signings etc. all day without it actually being official but parts,plans and drawings will have a massive paper trail.
Confirmed, Newey will be gone early 2025
So obviously now the rumours are Newey to Ferrari. If this happens you have to wonder if Hamilton had the nod and that's part of the reason he's gambling and going there.
Can he go to Aston? I dont know anything about Newey but he looks like the type who likes fishing. He aint going to live in Italy.
You should be willing to relocate your entire team to the UK, or fucking Nepal, if that is what it takes to get Newey to join.
Been a while since I've supported Ferrari, be nice if they were winning when I do. They make more sense from a career perspective and would be less of a long term project than Aston, plus I think making Lance Stroll World Champion would be beyond even Newey.
You can probably still get a decent shepherd's pie somewhere in Italy.
Lewis went for Fred. They go back a very long way, so I reckon when Fred got on the phone it was easy to say yes given the current state of Mercedes.
If Newey does join(I don't think he does) then it's a massive added bonus.
A lad who was talking on the phone in Sainsbury's today is CONVINCED that Newey is going to Ferrari to build a super team with Hamilton.
Are the '26 regs more aero or engine focused? I assumed engine as there seemed to be big name manufacturers being brought to the party, is that not the case?
Pretty sure Hamilton went to Ferrari because [a] everyone wants to drive for them at least once and [b] their current car is miles better than the evolving backwards Merc, Newey would never have been part of the equation.
It's mostly power unit related, but it does have some aero if I recall correctly. The recent (failed) tests had something to do with front/rear wings adjustments or some such.
Yeah the main focus is on engines, but they are also getting some sort of active aerodynamics, which will inevitably end up being the key component to performance.
I think that the issue with the early simulations was that only the rear wing was movable, so you ended up with no rear downforce and full front downforce on the straights, which led to cars spinning. The current plan is to make both front and rear wings movable to keep the aero balance reasonable. Whoever hacks the system best (Newey) will end up with the fastest car regardless of the engines.
Last edited by Pepe; 01-05-2024 at 07:43 PM.
Oh dear.
Looks very Ligue 2. Valenciennes or something.
I don't quite mind the livery coloring, but those wheel covers look horrendous.
This was pretty funny, confirmation if it were needed that ai driven cars are a long way from being even vaguely workable and that even when you think Danil Kvyat has endured enough humiliation there are deeper depths to plumb. Goodness knows why they needed Super Formula cars for this, a few hatchbacks from the scrappy would have trundled around just as well.
If they had made the full car the same colour as those race suits then you'd have been on to something.
@Waff McLaren have brought their big upgrade package. Time to buy yourself some new boxers.
They even brought the coke for when Lando romps to victory.
Probably end up like Aston Martin and their ‘upgrade’ last year
In saying that, if it’s anything like McLaren’s initial upgrade last year where they went from Haas to Ferrari level, I might have to get naked
Newey sitting next to Horner looks a tad awkward
Zak Brown sticking the oar in with talk of 'Red Bull resumes flying around the pitlane'.
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