F1 2024 News/Misc.

Red Bull is on rails on track but absolutely falling apart outside of it.
 
Oh and there’s this.



Good old Benny. I’m amazed he’s still has a job after all the shady stuff he’s done in just over 3 years.
 
Doc Austin said:
It's not juicy enough, so let's throw some more gas on the fire: Mohammed Ben Sulayem is under investigation for allegedly interfering over the result of an F1 race from last year.

What the heck is going on with the Wolf mess, the Andretti mess, the Horner mess, the Ford mess, and now this? I can't ever remember seeing F1 in this much turmoil. Like, what kind of scandal is going to pop up next?
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I had even engaged last year in the "Well, dominations happens" stuff with F1, but all this drama surrounding it is a different thing. There's been plenty of major drama in the past in F1. We all know that. There are probably a couple of seasons with way bigger and more dramatic concerns that raised their heads. I get that too. But I cannot for the life of me recall a period of time in which the reporting about F1 was so uniformly bad and cast the actors of the sport in such a poor light while also being fan unfriendly on and off track. The counter to that which I've seen is basically "nuh uh" which isn't very convincing.

It isn't my thing to necessarily do the "journos aren't your friends" bit but honestly, to some degree, the first level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs for them is that you don't just read what they did once and never return. You need to be invested in F1 and care about it, even if that means shaming you for not watching the Pinnacle of Motorsports. I meanwhile, can't be easily shamed like that.
 
My distain for Jos grows with every new thing I read. His violent past was enough, but now he's inserting himself where he doesn't belong. This whole mess would have maybe gone away quietly, but no.

You have to ask yourself what Jos is getting out of all of this other than a chance to settle some sort of beef we don't know about yet. It doesn't add up Jos wants to destabilize the team and maybe cost Max results. If Horner really is guilty of something, why not just let it play out instead of making things worse? At this point, it's Jos who is exploding the team. Everyone else has been pretty restrained. It's only Jos who is openly coming out against Horner, but he's doing enough of that to keep everyone wound up.

Apparently, Jos will not be at Jedda, so it will be interesting to see how the team rallies behind their leader. My guess is Jedda will go smoothly from an operational standpoint, and I'de be surprised if anyone from Red Bull has anything to say about it. Everyone but Jos wants this to go away. Like, even Marko has very little to say.

One thing to worry about that no one has mentioned is Jos has shown a propensity to act violently. Maybe he's not stupid enough to try something like that in front of the whole world but it appears Jos has no self control. Remember we're talking about a guy who cracks skulls over a karting event and ran his girlfriend over with a car, then fled the scene. We're talking about a violent criminal who probably has no place in a sport like this. What does Jos add to the team other than chaos?

Let's break it down a little further: There's lots of talk that Horner should get the axe over some texts we are not even sure are real yet, but someone who has proven (repeatedly) themselves to be quite capable of hurting people is ok? I'm not sure how you can give Jos' voice any credibility. Maybe someone should ask if it's worse to send dirty texts or target a woman with an automobile.
 
Ben Suleyem is in deep ****. He also tried to scuttled the Las Vegas race from happening. The same whistleblower also said Ben wanted to deny the certification of the race.
 
Reck said:
Ben Suleyem is in deep ****. He also tried to scuttled the Las Vegas race from happening. The same whistleblower also said Ben wanted to deny the certification of the race.
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I read Sulayem didn't want the circuit approved on safety grounds. Seeing what happened in FP1, he may have been on to something. If the FIA disposes him for trying to address a safety problem that won't be a good look for them.

Only paying so much attention to the background noise, I'm almost convinced someone is out to get Ben. Jos is out to get Christian. There is so much discontent going around the F1 paddock it looks like everyone is out to get everyone.
 
Doc Austin said:
I read Sulayem didn't want the circuit approved on safety grounds. Seeing what happened in FP1, he may have been on to something. If the FIA disposes him for trying to address a safety problem that won't be a good look for them.

Only paying so much attention to the background noise, I'm almost convinced someone is out to get Ben. Jos is out to get Christian. There is so much discontent going around the F1 paddock it looks like everyone is out to get everyone.
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This is what I immediately thought of when it was brought up. And you know what? He appears to have been right that it shouldn't have been certified in the manner it was!
 
Doc Austin said:
I read Sulayem didn't want the circuit approved on safety grounds. Seeing what happened in FP1, he may have been on to something. If the FIA disposes him for trying to address a safety problem that won't be a good look for them.

Only paying so much attention to the background noise, I'm almost convinced someone is out to get Ben. Jos is out to get Christian. There is so much discontent going around the F1 paddock it looks like everyone is out to get everyone.
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Disagree.

sewer drains coming loose is a theme in F1 that predates what happened there. Hell, it happened again in Bahrain.

Ben is just a crooked man. He’s a little too close to Red Bull for instance. He also apparently asked Max to say something nice about Christian Horner.

He shouldn’t be meddling in things. Suleyam has been an issue for a while now on ethics alone.
 
But wait, there’s more.



The thought of Ben given the benefit of the doubt on safety grounds is hilarious. The guy is just corrupt. Shocker
 
Reck said:
The thought of Ben given the benefit of the doubt on safety grounds is hilarious. The guy is just corrupt. Shocker
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And yet, they had a safety problem. There may have been ulterior motives, but at least he was right on that part.
 
Doc Austin said:
And yet, they had a safety problem. There may have been ulterior motives, but at least he was right on that part.
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He wouldn’t have known about a drainage issue. C’mon lol
 
Reck said:
He wouldn’t have known about a drainage issue. C’mon lol
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Maybe not that specifically, but something caught his eye. If not, what other reason could he possibly have for blowing up a $35 million venture? Job security? Costing the FIA and Liberty that kind of money would guarantee he'de be in the bread line the next day. If there is something nefarious here I can't see it.
 
A bunch of anonymous allegations come out towards MBS right after the reports that he asked Max to publicly support Horner. Curious, no?

One could argue this is Red Bull finally reaping from letting that POS Jos become a key member of the team.

To put down a bold prediction, I’ll say Max winds up at Mercedes next year, Newey to Ferrari, the Ford deal blows up, and Red Bull as we know it essentially collapses. Too many parties trying to pull in too many different directions right now.
 
FLRacingFan said:
A bunch of anonymous allegations come out towards MBS right after the reports that he asked Max to publicly support Horner. Curious, no?
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Is asking one of your drivers to diffuse the tension by saying something nice a removable offense?

As far as Alonso's penalty, I'm willing to bet everyone here agrees it was rightfully overturned. It probably was not Sulayem's place to make that call, but at least it was the right one.

Vegas? Hard pass. Don't talk the safety talk if you can't walk the safety walk. All we hear about is all safety all the time from these people, but the first time someone raises a concern, they race anyway.
FLRacingFan said:
One could argue this is Red Bull finally reaping from letting that POS Jos become a key member of the team.
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The more I read about Jos, the more disdain I have for him. Jos was simply the price Red Bull had to pay to get Max to start with. To get to Max, you had to deal with Jos. Maybe at the time they thought it was worth it, but I'll bet they are having second thoughts now.

FLRacingFan said:
To put down a bold prediction, I’ll say Max winds up at Mercedes next year, Newey to Ferrari, the Ford deal blows up, and Red Bull as we know it essentially collapses. Too many parties trying to pull in too many different directions right now.
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How sad that it is going to take political garbage like this to bring down Red Bull when no one could do it on the track.
 
FLRacingFan said:
To put down a bold prediction, I’ll say Max winds up at Mercedes next year, Newey to Ferrari, the Ford deal blows up, and Red Bull as we know it essentially collapses. Too many parties trying to pull in too many different directions right now.
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Cupace20240305152600170.png
 
Doc Austin said:
Is asking one of your drivers to diffuse the tension by saying something nice a removable offense?

As far as Alonso's penalty, I'm willing to bet everyone here agrees it was rightfully overturned. It probably was not Sulayem's place to make that call, but at least it was the right one.
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Neither of these are his jurisdiction, which is a problem. Supposedly Max told him to do it himself, in regard to being asked to publicly support Horner. Same for meddling with stewarding decisions. Just a bad look.

Don’t forget there was the fiasco with the Toto and Susie Wolff allegations over the offseason that every team in the paddock pretty quickly denounced, and the FIA sheepishly closed the “investigation”.

The whole F1/FIA relationship is incredibly strained right now and MBS has been a huge reason why.
 
Max isn’t one of “his drivers.”

Max is technically part of the F1 group. Suleyam is overstepping his boundaries by a thousand fold. His behavior has been highly questionable.

Basically highly under qualified for his duties. Didn’t he also say how F1 wasn’t worth 500 million or something? lol
 
It's all a house of cards, they're falling one at time now, how long before it all collapses. Remember, blood is thicker than water.
 
I don't read Joe Saward's F1 blog very often - it's a bit tedious and sanctimonious for my taste - but occasionally he has some good insider perspective to offer. His current blog post was recommended to me so I gave it a read. It is titled... "Green Notebook From A Dirty Weekend." Pretty interesting, even if flawed by some unsupported conclusions IMO. It's worth your while to have a look...

joesaward.wordpress.com

Green Notebook from a dirty weekend

The human being has two basic instincts: self-preservation, and the survival of the species. Pheromones, those naughty little chemical friends we have, help us to keep the human race going. Wanting…
joesaward.wordpress.com joesaward.wordpress.com
 
FP1 is underway with Russel and Lando flying. However, every tie they go fastest, Max finds another 3-4/10ths. Hard to tell how big their advantage is but Max is making it look easy.
 
LewTheShoe said:
I don't read Joe Saward's F1 blog very often - it's a bit tedious and sanctimonious for my taste - but occasionally he has some good insider perspective to offer. His current blog post was recommended to me so I gave it a read. It is titled... "Green Notebook From A Dirty Weekend." Pretty interesting, even if flawed by some unsupported conclusions IMO. It's worth your while to have a look...

joesaward.wordpress.com

Green Notebook from a dirty weekend

The human being has two basic instincts: self-preservation, and the survival of the species. Pheromones, those naughty little chemical friends we have, help us to keep the human race going. Wanting…
joesaward.wordpress.com joesaward.wordpress.com
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The comments section where whomever F1Kate is describes needing to record these sorts of communications in the past because of the way women in racing are treated only to then be accused (along with all women!) of weaponizing relationships essentially by Joe is absolutely wild to me given that Joe's sister was one of the most famous victims of sexual assault/rape in the UK due to her advocacy. To absolutely anyone outside the F1 ecosystem, what is going on with this story is abhorrent, retrograde stuff. That it is all around a powerplay for ownership isn't lost on me in saying that, nor does it justify any component of this.
 
Red Bull said to suspend Helmut Marko.

lol
 
Red Bull looks finished to me. The Max to Merc is making more and more sense.

 
Okay, ignorant questions time:
  • What are the responsibilities of Marko's role of 'advisor'? Is this a role unique to Red Bull or does it common to all F1 teams? Is it comparable to any position in NASCAR or Indy?
  • What's Jos V.'s role at RB?
Thanks!
 
This whole Red Bull mess is so much more complicated than we first thought.
Charlie Spencer said:
Okay, ignorant questions time:
  • What are the responsibilities of Marko's role of 'advisor'? Is this a role unique to Red Bull or does it common to all F1 teams? Is it comparable to any position in NASCAR or Indy?
  • What's Jos V.'s role at RB?
Thanks!
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Lauda had a similar position at Mercedes, and I believe he was an adviser to Ferrari before that.

I don't know what Jos' job is other than to be disruptive. I'm sure if Red Bull needs someone run over in the paddock that Jos' experience would be invaluable.
 
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