Hello, welcome to This Week, only one big story this week, the departure of Christian Horner from Red Bull. The full story it feels, is yet to be told. Silverstone last weekend marked the halfway stage in the season with two ‘feel good stories’, Lando Norris winning his home race and Nico Hulkenberg, after fifteen years in and out of F1, taking his first podium…
General News
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem reiterated his support for F1 to move to much cheaper V8 engines as soon as the 2029 season and also weighed up the chances of a twelfth team joining the grid.
Speaking to the media at Silverstone, Ben Sulayem urged the series to move to a cheaper engine formula as soon as viable and thinks that move could happen for the 2029 season, just three years after the introduction of the ambitious 2026 power units. He said, “To us, the V8 is happening. With the teams now, I’m very optimistic, happy about it. FOM [Formula One Management] are supportive, the teams are realising it is the right way. We need to do it soon.”
“You need three years, so hopefully by 2029 we have something there, but the fuel is also very expensive, and we have to be very careful with that. Transmissions are very expensive. The current engine is so complicated, you have no idea, and it is costly. R&D is reaching $200 million, and the engine is costing approximately $1.8m to $2.1m, so if we go with a straight V8, let’s see.”
Ben Sulayem’s comments largely mirror the ones he and other FIA officials made earlier this season, when the president’s calls for cheaper engines led to a meeting with the various current and future power unit manufacturers in Bahrain. That meeting concluded a form of electrification as well as sustainable fuels in its future engine regulations.
V8 is seen as the more viable option compared to V12 or V10S, which some have been pushing for.
McLaren
Lando Norris says his first home win last weekend at Silverstone was “pure joy, pure emotion”. The Bristolian beat teammate Oscar Piastri, inheriting the lead after the Australian was given a ten-second penalty for his driving before a safety-car restart, allowing him to narrow the championship to eight points.
Norris told BBC News, “It’s a very selfish moment, but it is one of the most special because it’s such a rare thing to feel. For me, the best win. Maybe not the best way to win. I’m not going to say it was my best-fought win. That’s not true.”
“But in terms of what it means to win at home and in front of my own grandstand, the fans, McLaren, [the Crown Prince of Bahrain] is here and to have a one-two and make amends for last year makes it even more special. Very memorable.” That was a. reference to 2024 when he lost the win to Lewis Hamilton when the team made the wrong choice on tyres at the last stop.
Norris suffered an injury to his nose while he was celebrating after the race. He was on the pit wall, and one of the photographers slipped off the barriers next to him and knocked the trophy into his nose. It is the second nose cut he has suffered in a year – he has a scar from a cut he received from a glass during a party last summer.
Before suffering the injury, Norris said: “No tears. I tried but when I get emotional, I don’t cry. I smile. It was just pure joy, pure emotion of the moment you’re in. I wish I’d cried because it looks better. I sometimes find it difficult to be positive before races but I was surprised today that I had the pace when I needed it.”
Red Bull
Red Bull has sacked CEO and team principal Christian Horner with immediate effect after two decades with the team. Horner has been in charge of the Anglo-Austrian team since 2005, when they took over Jaguar, leading them to six Constructors and eight Drivers’ Championships.
Laurent Mekies has been appointed as CEO of Red Bull Racing, stepping up from the Racing Bulls team. Mekies will be replaced at Racing Bulls by racing director Alan Permane.
The announcement comes eighteen months after a KC-led investigation cleared Horner twice of “inappropriate behaviour” towards a female colleague. It comes after eighteen months of turbulence caused by the allegations, which have seen the team lose chief technical officer Adrian Newey to Aston Martin, sporting director Jonathan Wheatley to Sauber and head of strategy Will Courtenay to McLaren.
Horner was the longest-serving team principal and masterminded four championships for Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen. The team has, however, struggled to fight McLaren since this time last season, and they are currently fourth in the constructors, with Verstappen third by seventy points at the halfway point in the season.
His departure will further fuel speculation about Verstappen’s future, The four-time champion is currently under contract until 2028 but the drama around Horner and the drop in performance over the last year. The team has only won four races since last July.
Meanwhile, Sky Sports obtained footage of Horner’s farewell speech, during which he broke down in tears and received lengthy ovations from his former colleagues. Horner said: “Yesterday, I was informed by Red Bull that operationally I would no longer be involved with the business or the team moving forward. I will still remain employed by the company, but, operationally the baton will be handed over.”
“It came as a shock to myself. I’ve had a chance to reflect over the last twelve hours and wanted to stand in front of all of you to break this news and to express my gratitude to each and every single member of the team that has given so much during the last twenty-and-a-half years. Watching and being part of this team has been the biggest privilege of my life.”
Later on Wednesday, Horner posted a statement on social media in which he once more paid tribute to those he had worked with at Red Bull.
Horner wrote: “Thank you to our rivals, with whom there would be no racing at all. You’ve pushed us, challenged us, and enabled us to achieve accolades we never dreamed possible. The competition has made every victory sweeter and every setback an opportunity to develop and grow.”
“Formula 1 is a sport built on relentless ambition, passion, and respect. The rivalries have been fierce, but the mutual drive to innovate and raise the bar is what has made this journey so special.”
Aston Martin
Fernando Alonso was angry following last weekend’s race at Silverstone because the team didn’t give him the same strategy as his teammate, Lance Stroll. The Canadian at one stage ran third thanks to two perfectly timed stops,
He made his first under virtual safety car conditions on lap six, climbed into the top ten on his soft rubber against others on intermediates, then pitted again for the green-striped tyres on lap ten when rain resurfaced. This allowed him to jump into the podium positions, as there were drivers on older intermediates who pitted later, including Alonso on lap eleven, which dropped him from sixth to tenth.
Alonso’s second stop came on lap thirty-seven, making him the first driver to switch to slicks late on, but that move came a few tours too early as the bulk of the field, including Stroll, did not come in again until laps forty-one to forty-four. The Spaniard told DAZN, “It was a very hard race to execute, and for us, it ended up being a missed opportunity. I’m not happy, obviously. We started seventh and finished ninth – we executed something badly.”
“Usually in these kinds of situations, his [Stroll] side of the garage tends to be more accurate. They did well. In fact, Lance pitted twice before I even made my first stop, which put him up in third. That’s why sometimes I find it hard to understand, because we have another car giving us information, and if that car is in third place, I don’t know how we can’t use that information from our side of the garage. It’s in-house.”
I think last weekend’s race was one where you needed experience rather than data and experience to get the best result.
However team principal, Andy Cowell, has denied there being a strategy issue with Alonso’s side of the garage, as pre-race, the vastly different starting positions offered the potential for varying strategies.
Cowell said, “I don’t think there’s a problem. The strategy is done centrally because there’s only one pit box. So you need to make sure that you consider it from a team perspective. Early on it felt really clear when to do the stop.”
Explaining that the inters were progressively wearing out and the track was getting drier and drier. But in hindsight that Cowell feels it “would have been better” for Alonso to mimic Stroll’s strategy.
Williams
Team principal James Vowles and his wife Rachel Rolph have announced the birth of their second child. Vowles announced the birth on social media on Thursday, 10 July, confirming that both his partner and the baby were in good health, saying “Welcome to the world little one! Rachel and baby are healthy and happy.”
The couple already have a nineteen month old Elodie, Vowles recently opened up on his relationship with his wife, who works for the NHS, during an interview with The Telegraph. he explained about a conversation that happened on their first date. “I was like, ‘I’ve got to warn you, my work is my life, and I work really long hours.”
“She was like, ‘No, I work really long hours.’ And I was like ‘No, no, no. I work really long hours.’ We actually went through it. And to be fair, Formula 1 still trumps it, but only just. My wife is unbelievable. She’s one of the best surgeons in the UK.”
“A double-first from Oxford who then worked in A&E in Whitechapel, then trained in plastics and breast cancer. So, quite a unique individual in that she can diagnose breast cancer and then do the mastectomy and a rebuild afterwards. She’s now doing a PhD on the use of mesh in the rebuild process post-mastectomy.”
Sauber
Nico Hulkenberg after two hundred and thirty-nine races finally scored his maiden podium last weekend, setting a new record for most starts without a podium. The German made his debut in Sakhir in 2010 with his only pole being in Sao Paulo the same season.
He told Sky Sports, “[It feels] good. It’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it? But I always knew we have it in us, I have it in me, somewhere. What a race. Coming from virtually last, doing it all over again from last weekend. It’s pretty surreal, to be honest. I’m not sure how it all happened, but obviously crazy, mixed conditions.”
Silverstone saw a chaotic, drenched race. However, the 37-year-old driver kept his head down and navigated through the field after starting last on the grid. But admitted that he was in denial until the final stop when Lewis Hamilton’s later stop gave him some breathing space.
Adding “But then he was catching quite quickly, so the pressure was there. It was an intense race but we didn’t crack, no mistakes, and obviously really, really happy with that. I was thinking that he’s going to give it all in front of his home crowd, and I was like, ‘sorry guys, but it’s also my day.’ I had to stick my neck out. I’m super happy.”
Gabriel Bortoleto has explained why he feels his early retirement was caused by his early pit stop, admitting that he “made a mistake” in the changing conditions. Most drivers started on the inters given the changing conditions but the Brazilian pitted on the formation lap to go to mediums.
However, spun off just a few laps later, ending up in the gravel before getting going again. With a piece of his front wing left near the track, the yellow flags were thrown and Bortoleto subsequently pulled off, bringing out a Virtual Safety Car.
Asked to talk through what had happened afterwards, Bortoleto responded: “It’s not difficult, it’s very simple what happened. I made a mistake, I decided to go for the mediums for the slicks set. I thought the track was going to dry up a bit quickly, with a lot of wind we were having this week and sunny conditions at that moment. I thought it was the right call to do at the time, I didn’t expect rain as well after, so I thought, ‘Let’s do this, maybe we can gain some positions here’.
“Then the restart was very tricky, low grip. I went on the power out of T1 and I had a big snap, tried to correct it and I didn’t make it. To error on slick tyres in the wet, I touched the rear wing on the wall and the rear wing was a bit broken, so I preferred to stop on track not to risk any debris staying around, and [it was] just race over for me there.”
