Behind The Headlines – The opening races
The opening two races were dominated by Max Verstappen, but the off-track drama continues to dominate the headlines as the fallout from the Christian Horner behaviour investigation continues, while he was cleared by the external investigator it has opened up more questions about what’s going on behind the scene. A power struggle between many different fractions within Red Bull.
Red Fighting Bulls
One thing which isn’t going away is the internal politics following Christian Horner being cleared of inappropriate and controlling behaviour by a female employee. Last weekend things took another twist, the female employee was suspended by Red Bull and allegations involving the father of Max Verstappen said the in fighting ‘risks tearing Red Bull apart’.
We know there has been a confidential internal investigation which cleared Horner, then an hour before qualifying a drive of evidence was sent to many media, but Red Bull hasn’t commented on what they call an ‘internal closed matter.’ We still don’t know what has happened and what the ‘controlling behaviour’ allegations were or are.
I think that the story isn’t going away, in Jeddah Jos Verstappen made similar comments to the Daily Mail, saying Red Bull would “explode” if Horner remained in his position, adding: “He is playing the victim when he is the one causing problems.” While Max says things “pretty crazy” for him to leave Red Bull.
It feels like every day there is another twist in this story, that makes it difficult to separate the facts from the spin. But we know since the death of Dietrich in Austin in 2022 the various factions in Red Bull have been fighting for control and it’s going to be interesting between now and ‘silly season’ how this internal fractional fighting is going to play out.
Horner is innocent until proven guilty, but these allegations are damaging both to him and Red Bull. Red Bull are in the sport as a marketing asset, but they have been different and less corporate over twenty years, these controversies aren’t going to help what is basically a marketing exercise.
However, I feel Red Bull see F1 as a division after twenty years in the sport it’s committed for the long haul how many teams have we seen come and go, teams like any organisation have difficult moments. We see off track controversy with all the teams, but this calls into question personal conduct, relationships between personnel and partners, Red Bull’s reparation and let’s not forget there are peoples life’s involved too…
The team aren’t going to force Verstappen to stay, that opens the possibility of him going to Mercedes, which would be as crazy as Lewis Hamilton going to Ferrari next year. While Verstappen has a long-term contract and like Hamilton ‘never intends to leave’ Red Bull, surprises can happens. How big a story would Verstappen to Mercedes be?
Ferrari may be kicking themselves by signing Hamilton given the infighting at Red Bull, but I don’t see a way they could get rid of the seven-time champion or Charles Leclerc. However I think they are not going to change their mind, but others might be part of the reason Fernando Alonso, in one of his bad career moves, decided to use the situation to get a seat at Red Bull?
Helmut Marko could be suspended by Red Bull under suspicion of leaking the drive of ‘evidence’ related to Horner’s behaviour… I feel Red Bull say ‘case closed.’ It’s not going to be until we get answers to the truth, it’s like we don’t know if these allegations were which caused these continuing questions.
Verstappen has not given firm support to Horner and if the off-track angst continues unabated, then it could be viewed as a price not worth paying in making any attempt to keep him if he wishes to go. It could become a decision between Horner, the long-serving team principal or their star driver Verstappen.
Honda, Red Bull’s current engine partner, has asked for full clarity on the allegations. So, before the complaint against Horner was dismissed, had Ford, which is joining forces with the team in 2026. The US car giant has yet to comment since.
Even questions are being asked in parliament about the transparency from Red Bull, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, himself a KC and former director of public prosecutions Sir Keir Starmer KC, said “I obviously don’t know the details of precisely what’s happened. So I’m not in a position to make comment on the specifics of this Red Bull case. They need to sort it out.”
“But the general proposition of transparency, the general proposition of when allegations are made, they should be taken seriously, external I absolutely adhere to.”
The woman who made the allegations against Horner has remained silent so far. How long will that continue? If she speaks out, or takes legal action following her suspension, or both, what effect will that have on Red Bull, and on F1 as a sport? It’s not for Horner to decide when this is closed its when we get the full story… its hard to be balanced and impartial when you don’t have all the facts and information.
Much better on track
While Red Bullfighting goes on off track, in the first two races Verstappen has dominated by some margin. The question going into the rest of the season, is can anyone close the gap to Red Bull who have appeared to, despite a major concept change can stay ahead. But behind the chasing pack has closed up, Red Bull has made another huge step forwards and effetely wiped out the gains others.
Mercedes, unlike the last two years, looks to have picked up where they left off rather than slipping backwards and that has seen them in the fight with Ferrari. McLaren is another who has made a step, unlike Aston Martin who hasn’t managed to make as big a step as last year when they were one of the big talking points following Fernando Alonso podiums in Sakhir and Jeddah.
It validates their decision to change concept, but the big question is can they and the others at the top end stop a Red Bull whitewash? Last year it was only Carlos Sainz in Singapore who beat Red Bull, imagine it is still unrealistic as no team has been unbeaten in an entire season.
The battle between Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari, feels like an old familiar battle one which could run all year. In the race, Hamilton was unable to pull away following stops which allowed Lando Norris to hang on the back of the Mercedes along with Oscar Piastri.
Piastri unlike the Red Bulls was unable to close the gap with DRS, before the frustration led to a mistake with him going off at Turn One having missed the chicane. While Norris’s well-timed stop a lap later allowed him to hang onto eighth ahead of Hamilton.
Although Mercedes had the upper hand in Bahrain, McLaren appeared to be the stronger contender in Jeddah – and that’s likely to ebb and flow throughout 2024. The battle with Hamilton may have cost Piastri the opportunity to challenge Leclerc in the closing stages.
Ferrari meanwhile, has given more evidence that they have got on top of the tyre wear issues and aren’t falling away during races as we seen over a number of years. But I think we still need to see whether that is because of the night conditions we have had in the past.
The only thing which I think could derail Verstappen is the Horner controversy, could he pull a stunt similar to Fernando Alonso in Budapest 2007?
Then we have a bigger gap between the challengers behind the top five and bottom five, but the bottom five while they’ve not further blurred the line between the midfield and the lower end, they don’t have big field spread between them. However given modern reliability and how close the top four behind Red Bull are it could be harder for them to score points.
Bearman debut
Ollie Bearman made a brilliant debut standing in for Carlos Sainz after he was taken to hospital with appendicitis, it was a good start he qualified eleventh on a tricky high speed street circuit. While Ferrari’s line was ‘no pressure,’ there is always pressure on debut and Ferrari.
In my view he delivered only one minor, but costly, mistake when he banged the wall in Q2 on his final attempt, costing a place in Q3 which would have knocked out Lewis Hamilton. I think only having an hour in the car and fighting for a place in Q3 is impressive but as a racing driver, Bearman was kicking himself for missing out by just under four hundredths.
Bearman’s F1 debut came with it some notable statistics, with him being the first driver to make their championship debut with Ferrari since Arturo Merzario in 1972 and the youngest British driver ever to compete for the Scuderia. Bearman said the lack of warning worked in his favour, as he didn’t have time to appreciate the magnitude of the situation.
I think Bearman delivered on what Fred Vassuer said were “unrealistic” expectations given he is at the sharp end in F2, this certainly wasn’t a flop and I believe in a car he hadn’t driven at quite a tough street circuit he could have easily messed up. It adds another dynamic to the driver market for 2025, but he needs to have a really good F2 season I don’t see where he could go if Ferrari wants to keep him in the family.
There is also the possibility of an Albon situation, where he is still part of Red Bull’s driver programme while being free to race for Williams where he has a contract. We have to wait and see how things play out, Ferrari faces a big decision to they stand in Bearman’s way of getting a seat or let him make his own call to get into F1?
Vassuer described him as ‘a huge asset for the weekend,’ as he didn’t focus on detail but rather the bigger picture, putting pressure on someone who hadn’t driven the car before FP3.