2024 F1 General Discussion Thread

waynescales1

Automatic capitalisation can disappear when you type something, then change your mind and decide to retype something else, or delete part of the message you've written. Given some of the nonsense he was sending to yer one I'd imagine he had a few goes at wording it correctly.

Still, I was sure Horner was gonna go, not so sure now. Looking very confident in the team principals press conference. Accuser suspended, (spurious) doubts about the authenticity of the evidence. I think he's gonna survive.

PsychoPete

You'd surely think if RedBull are taking this action then they've strong evidence and have all their facts in order that there is wrong doing on her behalf otherwise it would be a complete publicity disaster if it isn't already. They are getting enough backlash as it is from social media and now the social media "content creators" are going after the drivers on the grid for nothing speaking up about it. I've seen Danny Ric getting slaughtered online for his response about the whole thing likewise with Stroll,Hulkenberg and Bottas

mickdw

I really think as slimy as horner is that he is being fucked over by Jos and his girlfriend with Jos using it as a golden opportunity to get rid of.him and the woman possibly in so deep that she just might have destroyed her career.

If she was happy to play along with horner for god knows how long, I think it's abit rich to pull the plug and then call it harassment.

At this stage, with the power struggle known to be happening at redbull, I'm hoping horner survives and banishes verstappen senior from redbull circles.

BeepBeep67

Looking forward to the Red Bull International Women’s Day posts tomorrow

Gremlinertia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121863194#Comment_121863194

Deserves a reply because I laughed out loud in the pub, brilliant 🤣

n.d.os

Very interesting revelation today that the woman in question is dating Jos Verstappen. I'm not sure how long that has been public knowledge but what a mess. If the texts were genuine I doubt Geri would be hanging around but I find it strange that the woman was suspended today. That would lead me to believe her party leaked the texts and now she's been suspended by Red Bull as a result.

jj880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121863194#Comment_121863194

🤣🤣

Its a wonder we haven't seen more of Mercedes' new steering wheel with the WhatsApp button.

Ted222

Here’s my summary.

Jos is being a complete knob. He always has been a knob going back to his own days in F1.

He has an inflated sense of his own importance, based of his gifting Max to the world. Jos really doesn’t put his son’s best interests ahead of his own. His penis is of more importance than his son’s career.

Max has a blind sense of loyalty to his father. This would seem to imply a need to impress a father who was largely cruel to his son in his early years and, I would suggest, continues to be. I find this a fascinating insight into Max’s character.

If Max leaves to join Mercedes it will be a triumph of Max’s misguided devotion to his father over logical reasoning.

Cristian Horner is ultimately a sad tosser thinks he’s god but has made the mistake that other people think so too. His marriage is under threat and he doesn’t seem to have even gotten a ride out of it. As a CEO, he should have known better than to be so indiscreet with an employee and particularly with one who was knocking off his star performer’s father.

It’s a ball of crap.

mun1

A lot of disappointed people in this thread tonight, they’re dissappointed that Horner was cleared of any wrongdoing and his accuser has been rightfully dismissed from RB.

back to business and the racing .

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121863294#Comment_121863294

Ah pal, you have to keep up!

n.d.os

Are the text messages legit? Has any credible source actually come out and said they are real or fake?

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121863490#Comment_121863490

Why was the accuser being suspended (not dismissed) the right thing to do by Red Bull?

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121864376#Comment_121864376

Suspended with pay.

When they're in this kind of dispute and the source of the leak hasn't been officially* determined, I'm sure they can't actually trust her to be around sensitive information. Suspension with pay is probably fair enough, considering the circumstances.

*I imagine she's the main suspect in the leak.

Ted222

There’s a process to follow. There has to an investigation to determine what happened.

If the suspicion is confirmed through the investigation, she’ll be dismissed.

jj880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121863490#Comment_121863490

Not a hope.

https://www.independent.co.uk/f1/f1-christian-horner-international-womens-day-red-bull-b2508935.html

The message it sends, on the eve of the all-female racing series F1 Academy starting its second season on International Women’s Day, is truly terrible.

It implies to women: stay quiet. Don’t speak up against the behaviour of senior personnel in your place of work. If you do, prepare for your own job to be at risk, rather than the alleged perpetrator.

The accuser was working in her role as late as Monday at their base in Milton Keynes, but will now be considering her legal options, likely an appeal or maybe even an employment tribunal.

...

More significantly than Horner’s victim complex is the damage this episode is having, day-by-day, on the carefully caricatured product F1 has built in the last few years, particularly in this new Netflix-era. A sport seemingly open to change, away from the billion-pound boys club of yesteryear.

...

The irony is palpable. But for F1, the whole saga is becoming perilous. Slowly but surely, it is undoing all the genuinely good work the sport has done to increase the visibility of women and ethnic minorities, alongside making the paddock a safe and welcoming space of work. More transparency is desperately needed.

This will run on and on.

bren2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121863490#Comment_121863490

Its impossible for anyone outside of RB to determine if this is the right thing to do....

Either RB are making an absolute balls of this or RB know something the general public don't know. If anything, this just drags the saga out even longer. You'd forget qualifying was today.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121863049#Comment_121863049

Yeah they're in a tight situation, it's pretty clear to anyone with a bit of sense that everything has been done in a totally above board way as a company of that size would leave nothing to chance and would never suspend someone for making an allegation unless the legal case is completely watertight. But they're tied up by privacy legislation in their ability to release the actual facts, leaving the malicious actors in the media and the knuckle draggers on social media free to keep running with fabrications and rumours instead to keep drumming up bad publicity and trying to dig into Horner's personal life. It's utterly vile to see. I wonder if we'll end up seeing some of the worst offenders in the media up in the courts for libel.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121864741#Comment_121864741

That's not necessarily how it works at all. That's the bluff they could be playing. Big, powerful institutions are renowned for battening down the hatches and saying "come have a go". Money is the ammunition in this battle and the big, powerful institutions have more ammo than any individual.

There's a great chance the claimant takes a settlement and signs an NDA, everyone draws a line under it and we never know what actually happened. The independent investigation sounded great until they decided to show zero transparency.

We're still none the wiser about what actually happened.

Vicxas

Sainz is out this weekend due to appendicitis.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121865093#Comment_121865093

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-sainz-ruled-out-of-saudi-arabian-gp-with-appendicitis-as-f2-racer.2JzIonRBBDEjEb2AlkdVfl.html

this buck is standing in for Sainz

Andrew76

Wrong thread lads (we need more traffic in the race thread 😁).

jj880

Have RB / Horner presented a good reason why they cant say the WhatsApps are fake?

If the answer is "privacy laws" then more detail on those need to be given as it seems acceptable to cast doubt on the messages due to lower case lettering (farcical) in an attempt to discredit Hewitson as dishonest but Horner cant issue a denial.

As long as theres no denial of the WhatsApps (without good reason) it looks like RB / Horner are hunkering down to take the heat until it all blows over.

AMKC

I hope Carlos makes a smooth recovery from his operation whenever he has it as we need the smooth operator back in the Ferrari as soon as possible.

dulpit

If Sainz is going for operation now, will he be back for Australia? It's another 2 weeks after that before Japan (weird it's so early) so I assume he'll be sound for then. When it happened to Albon he was back for the next race but had 3 weeks rather than 2...

KillerShamrock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121865873#Comment_121865873

He will be assessed by doctors fit guy like him should be able to recover but the doctor would have the final say. He may have to wait till Japan

Frank Bullitt

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/major-audi-sauber-f1-project-decision-explained/

Audi to fully take over Sauber now.

Originally they were to take over 75% of the team, now they will take 100%.

Infoanon

Marko has told Austrian TV station ORF that he may be suspended on Monday by Red Bull.

Multiple media outlets are reporting that it's linked to allegations of breaching confidentiality.

Max in response has come out very strongly stating that Helmet is key to his future at Red Bull and that he must stay at Red Bull .

Multiple media outlets reporting that Max has a get out clause if Helmet leaves.

What a mess......

Burkie1203

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121867318#Comment_121867318

Is Jos behind this because this all stinks

PsychoPete

Helmut has been a loose cannon for quite a while now and I'd personally be happy to see him gone. He's said some questionable things over the years but he's 80 now surely he wouldn't be hanging working for the team for much longer. For RedBull to lose Verstappen would be a massive blow to the team, he can single handedly win the constructors for the team. Where would RedBull even go if they lost Verstappen, no driver that's part of RedBull currently is good enough to lead the team and if they look elsewhere the options are limited

Frank Bullitt

Max saying that if Helmut leaves, it will not be a good situation.

This is wild stuff, and all the while Alonso saying he will decide in the next few weeks if he will stay on or retire. Imagine he lands at RB because Max leaves over Helmut...