The build-up to the Belgian Grand Prix weekend naturally centered loads on Christian Horner’s departure from Crimson Bull Racing, and the influence that might have on the workforce and its driver line-up.
From the primary second Max Verstappen spoke to the media, it grew to become obvious there was extra transparency in his feedback. As defined final week, the imprecise side-stepping of questions was changed by in-depth responses, and there was even a point out of his authentic intention to see out his profession with Crimson Bull when he signed his newest contract.
That’s an intention that also feels removed from sure long run, however as for an instantaneous departure, it seems Verstappen might be staying put for 2026 at the least. A press release attributed to workforce advisor Helmut Marko claims as such, with performance-related contract launch clauses believed to be expiring across the Hungarian Grand Prix, with Verstappen assured to be third within the drivers’ championship heading into the summer season shutdown.
Add within the understanding that talks between Mercedes and George Russell over a multi-year extension are heading in a constructive course, and it appears more and more seemingly that – if it have been to occur – any transfer for Verstappen could be in 2027 and would see him paired with Russell as a part of a really engaging line-up, somewhat than changing the Briton.
The discussions between Verstappen and Mercedes have been made public by Russell, and clearly didn’t go down notably nicely with Horner previous to his dismissal. The previous workforce principal highlighted Mercedes’ lack of efficiency and points in Austria, when Verstappen’s future was the middle of rising hypothesis.
There was all the time one other dynamic at play when it got here to the motive force contract focus, given the historical past between Crimson Bull and Mercedes. 2021 was the nadir, however set the tone for ongoing stress between Horner and Mercedes workforce principal Toto Wolff, maybe encapsulated greatest by Horner’s exasperated suggestion to Wolff to “change your f***ing automobile” that was caught by Netflix’s “Drive to Survive” a yr later.
Whereas Spa-Francorchamps continued to see a deal with Verstappen and his future, and the rising probability that there wouldn’t be any motion over the subsequent 12 months, it additionally supplied an attention-grabbing alternative for a reset within the Crimson Bull and Mercedes relationship.
New workforce principal and CEO Laurent Mekies doesn’t have the identical historical past with Wolff as Horner did. The pair may have crossed paths when Mekies was on the FIA and deputy workforce principal at Ferrari – greater than his most up-to-date spell at Racing Bulls – however he didn’t have the identical place or rivalry that might evolve from his new function.
So there was an attention-grabbing prevalence through the previous weekend in Belgium, as Mekies was invited right down to Mercedes by Wolff for a gathering on the Saturday night after qualifying.
It was hardly refined as Mekies walked by a busy paddock and straight into the Mercedes motorhome, doing so whereas I used to be nonetheless broadcasting on SiriusXM – whereas many different broadcasters will nonetheless have been reside too – and making an attempt to seize interviews. At the moment, the motion of a workforce principal is all the time prone to catch the attention, since you usually have the intention of doorstepping them.
That he didn’t emerge for one more half hour and needed to finish the assembly in time to get to the post-qualifying debrief additionally instructed some in-depth discussions.
It was additionally seen by at the least one rival workforce boss, partly as a result of it was so uncommon for Mekies’ predecessor and the Mercedes workforce principal to have any time collectively exterior of group conditions. A joke and {a photograph} instigated by Geri Horner in Abu Dhabi apart, I can’t keep in mind a time I noticed both Horner or Wolff stroll into the opposite’s motorhome, and positively not when it was for something aside from a wider group assembly.
Whereas rivals on observe, Ferrari, Crimson Bull and Mercedes have purpose to make widespread trigger off it. Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Photos
They may not each in the end exist to promote the identical product, however Mercedes and Crimson Bull have extra in widespread than you would possibly suppose as Formulation 1 groups, and Wolff felt an extending of an olive department at first of the latter’s subsequent period was helpful to each.
In 2026, Crimson Bull will be a part of Mercedes, Ferrari and newcomers Audi as the one groups that manufacture their very own chassis and energy items. As such, these 4 are in a unique place to the opposite 10 (or 11 from subsequent yr) groups on the grid, in the case of future instructions of laws and prices.
At a time when there’s uncertainty over future instructions for energy items past the 2026 laws, and each Wolff and Mekies felt it might be of their greatest pursuits to grasp what the opposite’s intentions and preferences are for the game as a complete shifting ahead.
It’s the form of relationship that Ferrari’s Fred Vasseur already has with Wolff, and there’s a constructive one between McLaren and each Ferrari and Mercedes on that entrance, too. Crimson Bull has been a little bit of an outlier below Horner, the place there was a unique degree of collaboration on wider subjects off-track.
Having a greater working relationship may show necessary over the approaching years, given the F1 groups and drivers typically dealing with challenges in coping with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
However past that, it’s all the time necessary for the game’s predominant stakeholders to have the ability to come collectively on bigger-picture objects. That’s to not say they are going to all the time agree or need the identical issues, however when there’s a clear understanding of what every workforce’s preferences or necessities are, then it supplies a greater likelihood of progress being made in what can usually be combative environments.
Groups will all the time battle one another exhausting on observe, and there would definitely be no love misplaced if Crimson Bull have been to finally lose Verstappen to Mercedes in 2027 or past. However the change in management in Milton Keynes has supplied a possibility for a extra amicable off-track dynamic, and the 2 workforce bosses wasted no time in making an attempt to kick-start it in Belgium.
Till they’re combating one another for championships once more, that relationship has a greater likelihood of getting off on a stronger footing.
