The DRS Zone

Tag: Max Verstappen

  • Red Bull Sack Horner

    Massive news from F1 today with the announcement of the sacking of Christian Horner. Horner has been at the helm of Red Bull since they entered F1 as their own team back in 2005. Under his leadership they have become one of the most successful teams in Formula One history and he has led the team to 14 World Championships (Drivers and Constructors).

    The announcement comes after a turbulent 12-18 months for Red Bull and Horner; they have lost some high-profile team members and then the allegations of misconduct against Horner. That combined with the struggles they have had with the car. Despite Verstappen winning the Drivers’ Championship they have only won one race this season and last season in the second half of the season they won two races after winning 7 of the first 10 races.

    Along with the changes and car troubles, they have had issues with Jos Verstappen. Last year he claimed that unless Horner left the Red Bull team would flounder. To me this whole affair reeks of the Verstappen’s.

    Horner’s position has been slightly more uncertain after Dietrich Mateschitz passed away. He was a big friend and supporter of Horner and ever since it has left a void where a power struggle has continued to rumble away. The Verstappen’s are clearly close with Helmut Marko and we know Horner had a falling out with him last year which has been leading up to this event. My theory is they have given an ultimatum, Max leaves or Horner leaves. If this is the case it’s an absolute sad state of affairs that a driver and his father have such a say in how the team is ran. No one should be bigger than the team.

    It’s controversial to say but I personally quite like Horner, he has always protected the interests of the team first and foremost even in the most difficult of times and I genuinely can’t remember a time of Formula One without him. He always speaks well to the camera and out of all the team principles seems to be one of the more open and approachable. People will say that he would likely have preferred to go on his own terms, however with his clear love for the team, he was never going to walk away willingly. It is a shame for someone that has helped the team and drivers achieve so much, that this is the way that his time at Red Bull has to end.

    This will obviously hurt Horner, at the moment it is unclear if all his ties with Red Bull are done or not. I think he will take some time out of F1, but I do think we will see him back in the future.

    I also think, contrary to popular opinion that this is confirmation that Max will not be leaving Red Bull for Mercedes.

  • Mad Max

    A week on from the late race antics of Verstappen, I have been pondering what goes through his head. First let me start by saying that he is clearly an exceptional racer, his close combat racing can be a bit questionable at times, but he is very talented and away from the track he sounds like he is a genuinely nice down-to-earth guy.

    The problem Max has, is he doesn’t like to be told no. It is well documented and reported that when it came to racing, he had a tough up bringing with his father which arguably has made him the talent he is today, but you must wonder if during his childhood he was actually told “no” very often.

    I also often wonder about young drivers coming through the ranks and joining F1 early. There are many differences between the junior categories and F1 but one of the biggest, is that F1 is a team sport. That might seem like an obvious statement, but in all the junior series there is no Constructors Championship, that only occurs in F1. So, for the younger drivers it is every man for himself, even for those within a young driver development stable like Red Bull or Mercedes. It’s very cutthroat as you might expect and I wonder if the young drivers get so focused on themselves that when they join F1 its harder for some to transition into playing the team game. I think in some ways the drivers never lose that “look after number 1” mentality, but you ask the teams, and they will tell you, the team comes first, and you obey the teams’ desires.

    I remember back in his first season at the then named Torro Rosso team. He was alongside Carlos Sainz, at the Singapore Grand Prix he was asked to let his teammate Sainz through and he flat out refused saying “no” on the radio this was just the start of his insubordination, most recently he was asked to let Sergio Perez past at the Brazilian Grand Prix, and he said no. You can’t do that, the team pays your wages, you are an employee whether you like it or not. I have long had the thought that Max doesn’t really care for the Red Bull team, he is focused on number 1, and you will not change that. To be a World Champion, you must have that selfishness but equally without the team you are nothing.

    However, when it comes to handling adversity his first response is to lash out. Maybe that tells you more about his up bringing than anything, but I am no psychiatrist. We all know that his philosophy of defence is “either you back out or we crash” but when someone does the same to him, he gets riled up.

    That’s exactly what happened with Russell, he felt Russell forced him off the track which irritated him, then when he was told to give the place back the red mist descended even further. Casing point, someone has told him “no” and he’s thrown his toys out the pram. The fact that his first reaction was to ram into Russell should have been met with swift harsh punishment, you can’t start letting these things slide when they travel at the speed they do. Verstappen got a more lenient penalty than Russell got at Monaco for corner cutting, which is absurd. In my opinion it should have been a disqualification. This kind of behaviour should be nipped in the bud and met with swift harsh punishment.

    It’s not the first time we have seen this from Verstappen, he did it in Austria last season to Lando Norris, he has done it previously to Hamilton in Monza and I am sure it will happen again. If they are harsher with their punishment, maybe it will make him think again about doing it in the future.

    I have always wondered how Red Bull handle him behind the scenes and I suspect they don’t really bother especially as now with him being the main points scorer, they probably want to try and keep him sweet and stop him from leaving. However, in this season when they are struggling more than ever with that second car/ driver, they are relying on Max more to score the championship points. The actions and penalty for Verstappen in Spain was more detrimental to the team than it was for him. There is a real chance this season Red Bull will finish 4th in the Constructors Championship. With the difficulties they are having with this year’s car, I can see there being more tantrums on the horizon, which will become more costly for Red Bull.

    Let me know what you think.

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  • Miami Grand Prix

    Image obtained from BBC Sport

    Piastri Hatrick Hero!

    Oscar Pastri became the first McLaren driver since Mika Hakkinen (Jerez 97, Australia 98 & Brazil 98) to win 3 races in a row. A mind-blowing stat, which shows the torrid time McLaren have had in the years since. It was a win that was in some ways gifted to him, due to the shenanigans on the first lap. He made the most of the opportunity given to him and in the superior car, once he got past Max, he was never really going to be trouble.

    Norris and Verstappen Clash Again

    Verstappen out braked himself into turn one which allowed Norris through, it looked like Norris was ahead going into the slight right hand of turn two but was forced off by another aggressive defensive move, the stewards however saw nothing wrong with the move. The incident cost Norris a potential lead and a potential win, he dropped down to 6th and by the time he got back into second Piastri was to far ahead.

    “But it is the way it is with Max, it’s crash or don’t pass”

    Lando Norris on the incident with Verstappen

    Norris was understandably frustrated with Verstappen after the race, but he needs to reassess how he approaches these battles with him. In my opinion he should have had the foresight to know that he was going to be squeezed out, he had the far superior car. He should have taken a step back and waited to get him a few laps later, that’s easy to say sat on the sofa. After watching the battle had with Piastri and compare that to his battle with Norris, I do feel that he tries to push Norris further than he does others. I don’t know if it’s because they are friends or if he knows that he can get easily get into his head and bully him, but I would like to see Norris be a bit more aggressive towards him, but he needs to try and be smarter.

    Tea Break Time at Ferrari

    As the race weekends go by it seems to be getting worse for Hamilton and Ferrari. This weekend the traditional slowness of Ferrari’s decision making potentially cost them more points, they left the decision to allow Hamilton past Leclerc go for far too long. Hamilton cooked his tyres and could make no significant in-roads on Antonelli and eventually gave the place back to Leclerc.

    Hamilton on team radio asked if the team were having a tea break and it transpires that they told Hamilton they would be swapping positions but failed to relay that message to Leclerc. Towards the end of the race as Hamilton let Leclerc back past, he sarcastically asked if he was to allow Sainz past as well.

    There are bigger problems at Ferrari however, the car is not consistent, and the Miami weekend has been their weakest showing of the season so far. They are quickly losing ground to Mercedes and Red Bull.

    Antonelli Shines in Sprint Quali

    Antonelli produced a great showing in Sprint qualifying. He became the youngest driver to take a pole position in F1, although records in the sprint technically do not count towards the main overall statistics in F1 it is still a great accomplishment. Unfortunately, both races did not go his way, and he fell back down the order.

    Around the grid

    The crisis at Red Bull just a few races ago appears to have been a knee jerk reaction to a bad weekend. The car is clearly more suited to Verstappen’s style, and he clearly gets more out of it, but it is by no means a slow car. Take McLaren out of the equation and Verstappen would lead the championship.

    Mercedes had a strong weekend, although qualifying is clearly their strength. Russell benefited from the VSC around his pit window that pushed him into 3rd.

    Williams have had another strong weekend. Albon scored decent points and Sainz also finished in the points, they solidify their position as the top of the midfield teams. Hopefully they can carry this form on the rest of the season, but it just shows what is possible when you put two top drivers in the car and you don’t have to spend each weekend rebuilding it.

    Since the Miami race, Alpine have a new Team Principle and driver. I said before the season started that it wouldn’t be long before Colapinto was in the race seat and I wasn’t wrong. I will cover that in more detail in another post.

    Not much else to say for the other teams really, Hadjar had another strong showing. The race was a race of two halves. The second part of the race was a bit flatter, and the grandstands looked empty towards the end.

    Results

    1stOscar Piastri11thIsack Hadjar
    2ndLando Norris12thEstaban Ocon
    3rfGeorge Russell13thPierre Gasly
    4thMax Verstappen14thNico Hulkenberg
    5thAlex Albon15thFernando Alonso
    6thKimi Antonelli16thLance Stroll
    7thCharles LeclercDNFLiam Lawson
    8thLewis HamiltonDNFGabriel Bortoleto
    9thCarlos SainzDNFOliver Bearman
    10thYuki TsunodaDNFJack Doohan

    Race Rating: 6/10

    What’s next?

    A couple of weeks off again and we head back to Europe for a triple header of Imola, Barcelona and Monaco.

    Let me know what you think below:

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  • 2024 Season Review – Red Bull

    Downfall of the Champions

    It was a tough season for Red Bull, they went from being reigning champions to the third best team. You could however say that was largely down to the fact they only had Verstappen scoring the lion’s share of the points. Initially the team picked up where they left off in 2023, scoring a 1-2 in the first two races. It left everyone feeling that we were in for another season of RB and Verstappen domination. In the first five races Verstappen won four and Checo finished on the podium four times. By the time we got to Miami things for Checo at least started to unravel, he finished third in round five (China) and would not finish on the podium again. Verstappen would continue to challenge at the front and retain his crown as World Champion and barring an uncharacteristic Red Bull mechanical retirement in Australia, his worst finish was 6th. They took a “bold” and “aggressive” approach to their car, but it was a tricky one to drive and their development direction did not work and, in some instances, made the cars worse. Verstappen was clearly able to adapt to the car better than Checo underlining the raw talent that he has.

    The Team

    Obviously, the main talking point was the allegations that surfaced about Christian Horner and his inappropriate behaviour. The allegations came out before the start of the season, but it would be months before the talk died down. During that period, you had all sorts of people chipping in. Helmut Markko was sticking the knife in and then Jos Verstappen was also sticking his oar in. For the latter its very much a case of those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. At the end of the day, he’s the father of the driver, it has nothing to do with him what goes on in the team, keep your beak out and opinions to yourself.

    Clearly however it was a power struggle between Markko and Horner, with the former clearly wanting control of the team. Horner however managed to ride out the controversy and remains as Team Principle.

    A couple of massive changes for Red Bull. Firstly, long-standing Chief Technical Officer, Adrian Newey announced at the Miami Grand Prix that he would be leaving Red Bull and seeking pastures new for 2025. This also seemed to start the downfall of RB’s dominance. Naturally after he announced his future departure, his involvement with the race team became minimal and as a result they struggled with the development of the car and wind tunnel correlation not matching what was happening on track.

    Later in the season Red Bull would announce the departure of equally long-standing Sporting Director, Jonathan Wheatley. He was placed on gardening leave later in 2024 and announced that he would be joining Audi for 2026 as Team Principle.

    The Drivers

    Verstappen won the Drivers’ Championship for the fourth consecutive year, as mentioned earlier he showcased his underlying talent by dragging performances out of a car that really was not a front running car. There were plenty of controversy with him along the way as you expect. He is a hard racer and sometimes I think he crosses the line of what is fair, and it does seem that sometimes his attitude is “if try to come past me we will either crash or you will back down”. Personally, I think he goes too far sometimes and when it happens to him, he cries to the team and tries to get others a penalty, which on occasions he has done successfully. When coming up against Verstappen, you know what he’d like, you must be prepared to get your elbows out and get aggressive. If you’re too nice you will come off worse.

    2024 looks like it could be the last time we see Sergio Perez. He started the season off strongly and it rapidly went from bad to worse. He was awarded with a new contract in Canada and RB had hoped this would give him some confidence to turn his season round and unfortunately it seems like it had the opposite effect. You could argue that his performances were more in line to where the cars performance was, but you cannot deny one of the main reasons RB went from champions to third is because Perez couldn’t drag the performance out of the car. At the end of the season his contract was terminated. He went out of the sport with a bang, but not in a good way it was the bang of a collision with Bottas in the final race which could be his final appearance in the sport.

    For 2025….

    Liam Lawson is the driver to replace Perez. For me the jury is still out on this young Kiwi, I am not sure he has proven he deserves that second seat, but he appears to be the chosen one so we will see how he performs. The team will be looking to challenging at the front of the grid again after failing to win the constructors.

    2024 Season Rating 7/10

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