Category: Gossip and Rumours

In short, no.

There has been a lot of talk over the last few days after comments from F1’s boss Stefano Domenicali after his comments about F1 races being too long for the modern audience. In short I think these comments are a load of drivel.

An F1 race generally last between an hour and a half to an hour and three quarters. There are many other sports that last longer, for example. Football (soccer) games often last longer than their allotted 90mins, Cricket matches go on longer as do Tennis matches. Over in the US Baseball games go longer as do most NFL games. There are also other forms of motorsport that go on longer, like Indy car and World Endurance Championship races. Even films these days are longer!

The problem with F1 is not the length of the races, it is everything else. Let me break down my thoughts.

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The Cars

In my opinion we are in the worst generation of F1 cars that there has ever been. The thing that makes F1 races seem longer than 90 mins, is the fact that the majority or races are absolutely tedious with very little of interest going on. This generation of ground effect cars, make it almost impossible to drivers to follow consistently and closely. The dirty air that is thrown out the back of the car means the car behind suffers a reduction in car handling due to the turbulent air and also overheating of the tyres and of the car due to the hot air.

The rules were introduced to try and promote racing, but that hasn’t happened. We had a couple of seasons where the racing felt closer and more overtakes were possible, but we have gone the opposite way now. DRS has been around in F1 many years ago as an artificial way to increase overtaking and by proxy improve race excitement. DRS is more effective at certain races than others, some circuits it is only effective if the car behind is 2 plus seconds per lap quicker than the car in front. It is not uncommon these days to see DRS trains where no one can get past the car in front and they all cancel each other out. Take this past race at Zandvoort for example, Hadjar had a DRS train behind him and despite the Ferrari being a quicker car he still couldn’t get past. The reason being, the combination of the style of the circuit, the result of the dirty air and the fact the he may have been quicker, but not by enough of a margin to get past.

I also feel that the current electric/hybrid engines make the sport worse, not only do they sound terrible, they are much heavier than a car with a naturally aspirated engine installed, which means the tyres carrying the car wear and overheat quicker. From 2026 we are going to a more electric 50/50 split of power and I feel this will only make the races worse. Pirelli get a lot of stick about the tyres but the cars are so much more heavier and grip hungry than they have ever been. My opinion is F1 should look at going back to a V10 or V8 naturally aspirated engines, using bio fuel. It’s proven to be possible, Williams have converted Mansell’s old “Red 5” car to bio fuel and it sounds great. There are more options to be carbon neutral than using electric power, which lets face it when you look at the wider picture is not a very green technology.

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The Circuits

It is also my opinion that a lot of the tracks that make up the current F1 calendar are terrible and do not promote good racing. We have a lot of street circuits that are terrible for racing and overtaking. Whilst it is very cool to see an F1 car blasting around Singapore at night, let’s face it, generally the races are not thrilling. F1 fans have been calling for less street circuits and we seem to get more every time a new race is added to the calendar. I will say, however that if there were a different style of F1 car, some of these street circuits could well produce good races. A good number of the “classic” tracks that produce good races are either not on the calendar any more, or they are constantly at risk of being dropped off. Monaco is the only “classic” circuit that is never at risk, if there wasn’t such an attraction from the rich and famous for it, it would not be on the F1 calendar.

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The Tyres

I won’t dwell on the tyres too much because I have already mentioned it, but the current Pirelli tyres are terrible. Generally speaking, during races drivers cannot push for fear of the tyres falling apart. They all “race” to a target time set by the team, that maximises the strategy and tyre life. They are told not to get too close to the car in front because it overheats and ruins the tyres and they take several laps to come back into their window. It results in boring time trial like races with everyone trying to go as far into the race on one set of tyres as they can. It has long been my opinion that in the age of no refuelling, F1 should introduce a mandatory two stop race. It might allow the drivers to push in races more often if they know they are not required to do 40 laps on the same set. I would also like to see either another manufacturer enter the sport to create another “tyre war” or a completely new tyre suppler altogether if it is to remain as a solo supplier.

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The Drivers

I wouldn’t say the current field of drivers is the worst we have seen, however there are a lot of drivers on the grid that I feel should not be there. We also seem to be in a period where every team is looking for the next Max Verstappen. Max is a once in a generation driver, but all the teams, in my opinion are trying to rush these young drivers into F1 and they cannot cut the mustard. Not only is it detrimental to the team, but also to the young driver that may lose their confidence and hinder their career in the long term.

Once upon a time F1 drivers were seen as gladiatorial, they were men, not boys. Drivers used to look physically and mentally finished at the end of the race because they have had to wrestle this beast around a circuit for 50 laps. Very rarely these days do you see the drivers visibly struggling after a race, there is obviously the odd occasion where this is not the case, but most of the time they get out of the car and look like they’ve been on a leisurely drive. Which in some respects I suppose they have been as they have not had to push the car. Obviously you have to take into account the fact these drivers are much fitter than their predecessors, but they also have things like power steering which never used to be the case.

It could be due to the fact that team radio is broadcast more now than it ever has been, but the current crop of drivers seem to complain over the radio so much. All they seem to do is complain over the radio trying to get one another penalties. Just get on with it!

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Final Thoughts

I think there are wider issues in F1 than the race length. If they can make the races more entertaining you get more people hooked and for longer, when something is entertaining and engrossing, time evaporates. It’s not rocket science. We are in an age where peoples attention spans are shorter than ever, there are so many distractions and it really takes something to keep someones attention. Also a lot of new fans are coming to sport for drama, they have seen Drive to Survive, where it is edited to portray more drama and entertainment than there actually is. This is because it hooks people in, however when these people watch a race where there is a bunch of cars stuck behind one car their attentions start to go to other things.

Let me know what you think.

With the departure of Christian Horner, it had me thinking. This move by Red Bull has a whole Game of Thrones feel to it and in my opinion has actually been in the works for several years. Here are some of my thoughts (it may be a long one).

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Catalyst One

The motions at Red Bull started when founder Deitrich Mateschitz passed away. Mateschitz was not only a good friend of Horner but also his biggest supporter, and why wouldn’t he be? He put Horner in charge and he made them one of the biggest teams on the F1 grid. He stood by Horner for the difficult period after Sebastian Vettel left the team where they floundered for several years and had a very public fall out with the engine supplier Renault. But ultimately they would once again taste victory and success before he Mateschitz passed away. Once Mateschitz passed away others, mainly Helmut Marko smelt an opportunity.

There is no denying the close bond that Marko and Verstappen have forged in F1. It was Markos decision to bring him to the junior Red Bull team, having only completed one season in F3 and the rest as they say is history. After being promoted to the main Red Bull team he went from strength to strength and the relationship between him, his father and Marko only strengthened. We thought at the time this relationship included Christian Horner, but maybe it was all part of the game and a keep your enemy’s closer type of situation.

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Catalyst Two

This is where we enter the other party in this saga, Jos Verstappen. I do not know Jos Verstappen and I can only form an opinion of him by what I read, but the narrative is that he is a shady character. Once known as “Jos the Boss”, I always wondered what this meant considering his racing career is largely underwhelming. The stories are well known about the tough upbringing he gave Max in the face of failures combined with the stories of previous domestic abuse; it paints a picture that the bloke is just not very nice. That has come across more than ever over the last couple of years leading up to Horner’s exit, he has pulled no punches and not disguised the fact he wanted Horner out of the team. It is my personal belief that Jos Verstappen sees this as his and Max’s team.

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Catalyst Three

Horner’s dismissal comes after a troublesome 2024 fighting against allegations of sexual misconduct, claims that he has twice successfully been vindicated of. I ask myself the question was this the opportunity Marko and Jos were looking for to start sowing the seeds of discontent with the Red Bull board or were the allegations themself all part of their elaborate plot to oust Horner. The more you look into it, the easier it becomes to put the tin foil hat on and buy into the conspiracies. In the age that we live in, it is very rare for someone to come out of a sexual misconduct allegation with your head held high, but Horner, despite the challenges seemed to come out if it on top. He rode the wave of turmoil and gossip and remained at the helm all season.

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Catalyst Four

The other part in this game is down to the performance of Red Bull on track. Believe it or not I think the doubts about Red Bulls performance started to come at the back end of 2023. Although they dominated the season, one of the key talking points was the resurgence of McLaren in the second half of the season, this would have undoubtably raised eyebrows. However, McLaren started 2024 off slow and with Max winning the first 4 of 5 races helped paper over some of the cracks, cracks that people within Red Bull will have seen long before we as viewers saw them on track. The writing was on the wall when McLaren upped their game from Miami onwards. Adrian Newey left and the team seemed to flounder with a developmental direction.

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Catalyst Five

The fifth catalyst was the all the rumours circulating around that Max was looking to get out of his contract and go to Mercedes. These rumours fuelled by his father and others within the Verstappen camp will have made it very difficult for Horner given the current lack of performance. They always say that no one is bigger than the team and no one is irreplaceable, Red Bull however see it differently and will seemingly do anything to keep Max from leaving. Even if it means they have to produce a car that no one else can drive and end up stifling their ability to develop and push with both cars.

Anyone who knows anything about F1 will know the competitive order ebbs and flows, however when you get strong success it can be very hard to adjust to life when it ends. With the absolute domination Red Bull had in 2023, 2024 must have been a very hard pill to swallow.

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Upon leaving Red Bull, Horner addressed the staff with a heartfelt message. I am led to believe most of the employees think very highly of Horner, whilst he is demanding if you give him 100%, he will give you 100% and by all accounts he was a good boss. Since then, there have been several stories leaked about further addresses to staff from Marko where he told the employees they needed to “smile more” and further comments by Oliver Mintzlaff went down like a fart in church.

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Final Thoughts

If we combine all of these events as one, it’s very hard to not look at it as some sort of Game of Thrones type story. The timing of some of the events are also too convenient to overlook. Were the misconduct allegations all part of this game to oust Horner? It’s certainly very convenient the way the allegations came to light just before the start of the season. One thing I do think, is that Marko and Verstappen snr were not expecting Horner to come out of it with his job intact. The departure of key staff like Newey and Wheatley did not help Horner’s cause and when they left, I thought it was a matter of time but still Horner fought on. I think Marko and Verstappen snr have continued to try and sow the seeds of discontent with the Red Bull board members and the Thai majority owners who backed Horner last year seem to have had their minds changed. Obviously, all this will not have helped by the fact that Red Bull have fallen down the championship order, but this turn of events has no way been influenced by just the performance in 2025.

It will be interesting to see how Red Bull get on from here, the new Team Principal Laurent Mekies from Racing Bulls was quickly installed, it will be interesting to see if he is merely the puppet and Marko and Verstappen start to pull the strings. I do think it means Max will no longer be on his way out of the team, if he even was in the first place.

Will we see Horner in F1 again? In simple terms, if he wants to Yes. The level of success he has had in building a team from the ground upwards is something unheard of in today’s F1. He can be controversial and outspoken but his record speaks for its self. I personally wonder if he will end up at Cadillac, it’s not too far from where he lives and it’s a team that would cry out for his experience and leadership. Will he want to spend time building a team from the ground up again though?