Ferrari have tried to get him many times in the past, offering him a "Hollywood contract" and all but he's always turned them down. Don't think he'd ever go back to McLaren after leaving on bad terms although that was in the Dennis era. Williams are miles below him, no chance.

 

So that leaves Merc or Aston Martin. Now Merc would be hilarious especially if Verstappen did end up joining them too. Aston Martin would make the most sense, it would be a similar situation to when he joined RB in 2005, a midtable team whom he could help morph into a powerhouse and call all the shots... ah except for the fact the owner is an absolute clown and would massively hinder his autonomy.

Hockenheim & Nürburgring hope for the German Grand Prix to return to the calendar, starting from 2026, rotating between them.

 

https://www.grandprix.com/news/german-circu...-from-2026.html

Would love this. Germany should never have been allowed to fall off the calendar in the first place. Bin a sand Prix

 

Red Bull design chief Adrian Newey is to leave the team in the wake of the controversy involving allegations about team principal Christian Horner.

 

Newey, regarded as the greatest Formula 1 designer in history, has told Red Bull he wants to move on, BBC Sport has learned.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/cmm3v9ny78eo

Silly season this year is gonna be mental

Would love this. Germany should never have been allowed to fall off the calendar in the first place. Bin a sand Prix

 

 

Agreed.

 

Germany, Italy, France, Britain, Belgium and Monaco (not in that order) all have a historical significance to Grand Prix and Motor Racing that no other countries can match. They should be classed as Tier 1 countries and given special dispensation to remain on the calendar without fail. France is welcome to remodel Paul Ricard or build another track somewhere.

 

Japan, USA, Australia, Canada, Austria, South Africa, Brazil should be Tier 2 because of historical and geographical importance.

 

After that you can pick and 7 circuits in the world on a slightly rotating basis to give a calendar perfect 20 races. I'd go for 2 x GP of the Americas (Mexico, Miami, Vegas), 2 x European GP (Imola, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Netherlands, Russia one day maybe), 2 x Asian GP (Malaysia, Turkey, India, China, Singapore, Azerbaijan, Thailand, S. Korea, Vietnam potentially) and 1 x Middle East GP (Qatar, Saudi, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait)

Hulk off to Audi (Sauber) for 2025

Agreed.

 

Germany, Italy, France, Britain, Belgium and Monaco (not in that order) all have a historical significance to Grand Prix and Motor Racing that no other countries can match. They should be classed as Tier 1 countries and given special dispensation to remain on the calendar without fail. France is welcome to remodel Paul Ricard or build another track somewhere.

 

Japan, USA, Australia, Canada, Austria, South Africa, Brazil should be Tier 2 because of historical and geographical importance.

 

After that you can pick and 7 circuits in the world on a slightly rotating basis to give a calendar perfect 20 races. I'd go for 2 x GP of the Americas (Mexico, Miami, Vegas), 2 x European GP (Imola, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Netherlands, Russia one day maybe), 2 x Asian GP (Malaysia, Turkey, India, China, Singapore, Azerbaijan, Thailand, S. Korea, Vietnam potentially) and 1 x Middle East GP (Qatar, Saudi, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait)

I wouldn’t mind maybe 22 circuits. But 20 is also a fair number.

 

Otherwise I fully agree. We shouldn’t forget that the Grand Prix is a French invention (Renault won the first ever official Grand Prix in 1906) and the calendar should always have a European core. Beyond that, a more variable calendar would be really interesting and would help I think shake things up a little from year to year and keep casuals in touch. The approach works well for Formula E tbh, and it makes it feel a little more like a world championship and not a „which dictator paid the most“ championship

Hulk off to Audi (Sauber) for 2025

 

I am not sure about this move.

 

Hulkenberg is too good a driver to spend pretty much his whole F1 career in midfield/back of the pack teams. I hope as a team they make a leap forward and give Hulk a chance at a good end to his career/and a bloody podium!

 

 

I'm not sure what other options he'll have. I don't realistically see any of the current top 5 ever going for him as an option.

 

It'll be good to see the grid shake up a bit. I guess it makes K Mag more likely to stay, depends on how Haas see rookie vs. experience again - think it's likely Bearman will take on of the seats. If Audi replace both drivers I'd be trying everything to get Bottas if they want an experienced driver.

sure Bearman wil have a seat in Haas next year yeah

 

so Sanz-Hulk in Audi?

Can see Bottas moving back to Williams and Zhou getting the boot. He's had his China race now can't see any team wanting him as he's not shown any glimpses of greatness at all yet.

 

So that leaves Audi as the only realistic option for Sainz. Think Merc will take a leap of faith with Antonelli and put him straight in the car to have a year before the big regs change. Red Bull will keep Perez so long as he keeps racking up the podiums and if they get rid of him they might risk promoting Tsunoda. But who knows what state that team will be in by the end of the year.

Newey confirmed to be leaving in early 2025

Back to the midfield for Red Bull from 2026 then!

I think a lot of people seem to be overinflating Newey's ability to have an immediate impact at any new team. The Williams was already the dominant car when he joined in 1991 (only Senna could have beaten it in that, admittedly great, McLaren). His first design at McLaren took Hakkinen to the title but only Schumacher's injury in 1999 enabled Mika to win that championship and Schumacher then went on a 5 year winning streak, during which Newey left for Red Bull in 2005. It took 5 years to deliver the Austrian team their first title of four in a row before they were eclipsed once again.

 

During those barren years from 2014 to 2021 Red Bull almost certainly had the best aero package but the importance of that aspect was far less than now and will likely become so again in the future. By the time he can start elsewhere should he chose to continue, (and I wouldn't rule out retiring) it will be 2026 and he'll be 67.

 

And I'm not convinced Ferrari is so odds on as others think. Newey is not likely to relish to the idea of moving to Italy and may find the team dynamic too volatile and... passionate for his comfort. He's expressed an interest in working with both Alonso and Hamilton but who knows what kind of capability either will have in 2 years time and he may well decide to go wherever Verstappen wishes to go. Ferrari is obviously a huge draw but he's also been designing cars around Honda power units for a good few years and they have the best engine out there right now. Wherever he goes it will definitely be a works team but it won't involve Renault I'm sure.

Jeddah Magnussen was back for more today. If that was an online F1 lobby he'd have been disqualified by about lap 12 :lol:

I've said it before and I'll say it again but the stewards need to issue a drive through in a situation like that and if the team ignores it, they should disqualify them from the race - both cars.

they really have different rules depending on pilot

why are so tough on Alonso

can they be more permissive with people like Hamilton or Magnussen

 

Norris’ first win!!

Man did F1 need that. Not just the result but a different car finally able to take it to Red Bull.

 

Great for Lando to finally break his duck.

Always good to see a first time winner and for a little better luck and timing Piastri could have made the podium at least.

 

It may have taken Red Bull having an off weekend to happen, and I suspect Max would have won if he'd got the setup right, but at the end of the day Norris beat them on equal footing and deserved it.

 

It will be interesting to see if these McLaren upgrades will work as well at most other circuits.

very lucky x Norris but congrats to him

 

judges as usual pretty unconsistent with Sanz

I thought the calls for Sainz were right in this case. Piastri never left the track, was ahead at the apex and had the right to the corner, despite Carlos getting very irate about it. So no issue there.

 

Then later Sainz lost control of the back end and broke Piastri's car. A standard 10 sec penalty that he was lucky to have reduced to 5.

 

If anything Sainz was lucky rather than hard done by.