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Nice, but it's probably not specific enough if it yields a 10 that often. Calibrate it so that only the very best season yields a 10. Take 2025 or 2023 for example as the benchmark for Max. Would be way more useful that way.
I actually did try some options which applied harsher penalties on consistency and bad results, however Max turned out the best in those as well, just with a high 9s score. In the end, the ranking didn't change much actually, that's why I decided to use this last iteration which applied some saturation and granted a 10 for any season that, at least statistically speaking, was pretty much as good as it can get.
Yeah but it's not as interesting if you can't differentiate between good and great. Max in 2018 was definitely not the same as Max in 2025.
Great news. Max couldn't go to Oezbekistan yesterday and Madrid today because he had the flu but he has recovered.
He and Kelly had lunch today at Cipriani and they were filmed.
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Try harder. Thats a video from pre-covid times with his ex .
Embarrassing yourself
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I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm embarrassing myself?! Pre-Covid? His ex?
Could you explane yourself and also that sign?
With an ear infection, the doctor says you shouldn't fly, but fresh air isn't forbidden. Things are definitely much better now.
Retired Red Bull Top Advisor Helmut Marko Merciless: 'If We Had Fired Christian Horner Earlier, Max Verstappen Would Have Become Champion This Year Too'
Q: Quite a lot has happened at Red Bull Racing this season. Along with Oliver Mintzlaff, the Red Bull CEO who is responsible for the company's sports division, among other things, you dismissed Team Principal Christian Horner after more than twenty years this July. That brought an end to the power struggle between you and Horner.
Marko:"That's how it was always described in the media, but it wasn't personal. Didi (Dietrich Mateschitz, the late Red Bull founder) and I founded Red Bull Racing in 2005. We appointed Horner as Team Principal; I was there as a supervisor. Power was basically always in Austria; we made the decisions. I remember a party in 2022 before the Austrian Grand Prix. Didi was there, but not in good health. Christian came up to me and said, 'He won't make it to the end of the year.' From that moment on, he started cozying up to Chalerm Yoovidhya. When Didi died later that year, he did everything he could to take over with Yoovidhya's support. On behalf of 'Austria,' I did everything I could to prevent that."
Q:Things often got tough between, as you describe it, Austria on one side and Horner on the other. You ultimately came out on top by firing Horner this summer. Did that feel like a victory?**
Marko:"No. We had to do something because the performance on the track was lagging. If we had done it earlier, by the way, we would have gotten things on track faster this year, and Max *would* have become world champion. I am absolutely convinced of that. But those last years with Horner were unpleasant. Dirty games were played. Can you remember that I was supposedly said to have stated during Sergio Pérez's time that Mexicans are less focused than Dutch or Germans? That was fabricated, maybe by them. Just like the rumor spread in 2024 that the development of our engine was behind schedule and that we would therefore lose Ford as our sponsor. Never said, but Horner wanted to use that to suspend me. Because Max stepped in to defend me in Jeddah, it didn't happen."
Q:Horner certainly had the full support of major shareholder Yoovidhya in recent years. That changed during this season. Why was that?**
Marko: "More and more often, we could prove that Horner was lying about all sorts of things. Once Chalerm realized that too, he came to his senses.
Good riddance is all I'll say for this one. He did many of the things he claims he didn't. Too much ego. It's easy to use the Dutch Media, the same Media that caused all the problems at the start of last year.
Good riddance is all I'll say for this one. He did many of the things he claims he didn't. Too much ego. It's easy to use the Dutch Media, the same Media that caused all the problems at the start of last year.
And Horner was a saint? Let’s be real, these two both played the game of trying to have the other one ousted. It was bad for the team and it’s good that they’re both gone now.
Somewhat off-topic, but these last couple of weeks I have been working on polishing a statistic-based model to calculate driver performance. My goal was to build the most unbiased methodology possible, and I just recently published the results to f1insightshub.
To give a high-level view of how it works, the model calculates a "Driver Value Rating" based primarily on Median Finishing Position, ensuring that consistent results at the front of the grid are rewarded exponentially more than midfield survival. It determines each car's true potential using data-driven targets rather than just Championship standings. This allows elite drivers to score "Overperformance" points even when driving the fastest cars, provided they are consistently beating the car's statistical "par score." Finally, the score is adjusted by context-aware modifiers for teammate dominance (weighted split between race and qualifying) and team carrying (points share), while protecting top drivers from consistency penalties caused by mechanical DNFs.
I did various tweaks to end up with something that made sense mathematically. Through all experimentations, there is no driver other than Max Verstappen who scores a perfect 10.0 in this model every year since 2018. Even after applying stricter penalties because I initially felt 10.0s were popping up too frequently, his score did not budge at all.
To give some context, a 10.0 in this system represents a "special" season where a driver maximizes positional value, dominates their teammate, and statistically outperforms the machinery. Outside of Max (who achieved this every year from 2018 to 2025), this score was achieved by only three other drivers in that entire bracket:
*Lewis Hamilton (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021)
*Fernando Alonso (2023)
*Charles Leclerc (2025)
It really highlights how difficult perfection is to achieve. Yet Max scored it every single year since 2018. I have been impressed by Max ever since his rookie season, so this didn't exactly surprise me, but I'll be honest, seeing the data visualize that level of sustained performance really unlocked some perspective.
Please work on the model made by "what the fat." He has an extremely comprehensive model that judges car and hence driver perfomance. He ran articles on analysis of all time and over different years. It hasn't been run on recent data though. So give him a message and see what he says.
Retired Red Bull Top Advisor Helmut Marko Merciless: 'If We Had Fired Christian Horner Earlier, Max Verstappen Would Have Become Champion This Year Too'
Q: Quite a lot has happened at Red Bull Racing this season. Along with Oliver Mintzlaff, the Red Bull CEO who is responsible for the company's sports division, among other things, you dismissed Team Principal Christian Horner after more than twenty years this July. That brought an end to the power struggle between you and Horner.
Marko:"That's how it was always described in the media, but it wasn't personal. Didi (Dietrich Mateschitz, the late Red Bull founder) and I founded Red Bull Racing in 2005. We appointed Horner as Team Principal; I was there as a supervisor. Power was basically always in Austria; we made the decisions. I remember a party in 2022 before the Austrian Grand Prix. Didi was there, but not in good health. Christian came up to me and said, 'He won't make it to the end of the year.' From that moment on, he started cozying up to Chalerm Yoovidhya. When Didi died later that year, he did everything he could to take over with Yoovidhya's support. On behalf of 'Austria,' I did everything I could to prevent that."
Q:Things often got tough between, as you describe it, Austria on one side and Horner on the other. You ultimately came out on top by firing Horner this summer. Did that feel like a victory?**
Marko:"No. We had to do something because the performance on the track was lagging. If we had done it earlier, by the way, we would have gotten things on track faster this year, and Max *would* have become world champion. I am absolutely convinced of that. But those last years with Horner were unpleasant. Dirty games were played. Can you remember that I was supposedly said to have stated during Sergio Pérez's time that Mexicans are less focused than Dutch or Germans? That was fabricated, maybe by them. Just like the rumor spread in 2024 that the development of our engine was behind schedule and that we would therefore lose Ford as our sponsor. Never said, but Horner wanted to use that to suspend me. Because Max stepped in to defend me in Jeddah, it didn't happen."
Q:Horner certainly had the full support of major shareholder Yoovidhya in recent years. That changed during this season. Why was that?**
Marko: "More and more often, we could prove that Horner was lying about all sorts of things. Once Chalerm realized that too, he came to his senses.
Veeery Juicy!!
It seems like Christian's days were numbered in the lead up to Didi's death. Kill the viper before it strikes. I am really looking forward to Helmut's book and I hope he gets writing right away!
Again these exclusive interviews with The Telegraaf and The Limburger. The media outfits that broke the news surrounding Horner. It's like Marko can't help himself to show up at the crime scene.
The team is a bit light on senior management and will miss Wheatley and Newey, but boy are they better off without Horner and Marko.
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This is the link from the long interview with Helmut Marko in Graz with The Limburger.
It is of course in Dutch but you can use the translate button at the top on your desktop.
Good riddance is all I'll say for this one. He did many of the things he claims he didn't. Too much ego. It's easy to use the Dutch Media, the same Media that caused all the problems at the start of last year.
And Horner was a saint? Let’s be real, these two both played the game of trying to have the other one ousted. It was bad for the team and it’s good that they’re both gone now.
Marko is a provable liar given he did make it about Perez's nationality in 2023. He is just trying to save his face after being fired. Also, Horner was in the seat till Yoovidhya had majority stake which changed in May 25 and in July 25 Horner was fired. You don't need to be a genius to put two and two together. In any case it's very good riddance. His second driver development has been an utter failure since 2019 which, IMO is the only thing he was anyways responsible for doing.
He had nothing to apologize for. Expecting any form of generalization to be in the form of a compliment is infantile. As for his response, well, if you're apologizing to the global majority in 2025 for not being a constant fountain of pity-praise, your brain is cooked. If anyone should be apologizing it should be the crash-prone Perez who gave away RBR floor IP for free as early on as '22, which all of the other teams went on to copy. The curled fences, tunnel shape, boat steps, etc. Imagine if it hadn't been seen until '23 or '24 and the other teams kept racing with simpler floors that whole time. Anyway, if Helmut was more aligned with the Austrian side (as he stated) then maybe his departure was a voluntary retirement. Good for him. Long career, good reputation, part of one of the GOAT teams. What's to complain about. That quote from the interview where he suggested Horner was lying about some things is interesting--I wonder what.
Regardless, I still have yet to read a rational critique of Horner in this thread or its iterations in prior years. Please supply one if you can. "He's a meanie" or whatever hasn't convinced me. Maybe at the trial in January or in the coming years we'll get more info to justify character assassination. A couple pages back someone even brought up Printergate, when the commentariat got excited about Horner violating some rule of etiquette that journalists had invented five minutes prior. "Never take printed paper to a press conference." Okay. All I can say is if the sight of printed paper causes one anxiety it may be time to step away from the LCD and go touch some grass, or wood pulp, or a tree.
Was he supposed to use an iPad instead? Lug a monitor from the pit wall along with him? Turn down the lights and use a projector? Put it into context. That pass by Oscar on Max was the first obvious example in the season of the ’25 steward’s guide being applied, with its famous "wheels alongside" (1 meter behind = ahead) curiosity of phrasing. The steward’s guide later throughout the season became the subject of doubt, jokes, & mockery, but Horner was out ahead of it all. He simply pointed out, as did all of us later, “Look, this doesn’t make any sense, mate. He’s not ahead. He’s behind him. You can tell by looking at how far behind him he is. Look, here’s a photo of him being behind him, which shows that he’s behind him, which means that he’s behind him.”
The FIA & stewards did open themselves up to this criticism so of course a principal like Horner was gonna be among the first to address it. He’s the main face for the press and he had to explain why Ver didn’t get T1. He defends and advocates his team for the press; everyone knows him for that across 15+ seasons. He highlighted the confusing wording of the guide before anyone else did. The guidebook wording will probably stick around though as it has caught out the same drivers that it had at other times benefited. It’s just unfortunately phrased and potentially dangerous if applied to a high speed corner (like Russel on Verstappen at Imola). I don’t get the sense that the drivers are ultimately that concerned about it, though.
Utlimately Christian Horner was at the helm for eight world championship, with one of those being the most dominant in Formula One history. Decent CV. You're going to then sack him? Seems insane and says more about the RB board, imo, with my limited information.
I do want to know who fumbled Lawson's and Tsunoda's tenure. Would have been better to keep one or the other at TR/AT/RB all season. And notice I say fumble, not, "OMG TERRIBLE as we all know EVERYONE at RB is EVIL how DARE they." Just a mistake among a portfolio of victories.
With Horner, Newey, Wheatley, Marko, and Mateschitz gone within a few years, Max Verstappen was becoming the only spiritual figurehead left at the team. Which is how his 2025 season should be remembered. He was driver, heir to the old vision of Dietrich, and the spiritual team principal--all while bringing home 93% of his team's WCC points and, as second in the WDC standings, accruing 99.5% of the points tally of the eventual WDC winner, who had a team whose management was stable.
