2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[basti313]

What about the indictment of Marko's abilities? The driver development/progression and driver choices he made are, in retrospect, pretty poor outside Max... Criticism goes both ways.

I think this is a big misinterpretation of Marko. He was at every trackside meeting, every strategy meeting. Not to sit around and think about driver lineups, but because he was a moderator for how they approach the weekends.
This is to me also the biggest clash amongst them all as Horner and Marko could at some point not change the situation anymore.

For the drivers: To me it is still the biggest point about Sainz. Why did he not come back to RB? Was it Marko or Horner?

Yes, it speaks volumes when Zak is eerily happy that Horner is gone and speak well about Mekies.

It tells me he doesn't see him as a threat at all.

I would not interpret too much into this.
McLaren is playing strongly the Good boy - Bad boy game. They try so hard that they shoot themselves in the foot with it.
Now Horner and Verstappen were the perfect bad boy targets. Of course they played this like fiddles.

Now comes smiling Mekies: Of course they can not start a fight out of nowhere. That would make them the bad boy.
Be assured, once there is a crash, one bad word by Mekies...the party will start.

Only time will tell.
Perhaps Mekies is a good choice after the turbulence.

I think he might have changed the trackside issues:
In the past whenever they were running into correlation/setup issues Newey came to the track and solved the situation, changed the approach how they went into FP1. This happend more than once.
Already 2023 the problems startet and Newey was not happy how he could operate back then. This constant struggle on how they set up the car, this constant failure in FP1 and FP2 went on till Horner was sacked. Since then then the number of lost Fridays went down strongly. Now maybe it was Marko who now could operate freely or it was Mekies, implementing his RB strategies. Hope we find out in the future.

[Wouter]

Max went yesterday to Estoril to test two Mercedes AMG GT3 cars for his team.
Mercedes factorydriver Jules Gounon is also present.

[Badger]

The fact that so many non-RB fans have become defensive over Horner and skeptical about Mekies is also an indication. The same people who used to despise Horner now treat him as some incredible leader who was vital for RB's continued success. He clearly wasn't, the team stepped up in every way after he left. The car, race operations, morale, even the damn social media team improved post-Horner (watch the Vegas video)

Clearly this newly found focus has rattled cages. Some would have preferred the Horner vs Marko era of infighting and distractions continue.

[Watto]

Tbh, I think nothing Horner and Marko both wanted control Marko was sacked for trying to sign Alex Palou and getting him to break his contract with McLaren without Red Bull GmbH's knowledge

.

The Race
Aug 28, 2025
by Jack Benyon

The Red Bull Formula 1 team is not trying to sign freshly crowned four-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou, despite reports to the contrary earlier this week.

An article written by the Indy Star - a leader in IndyCar journalism covering the Indianapolis area where most of the teams are based and its biggest race takes place - cited sources indicating the Red Bull squad wanted Palou to slot into its driver line-up. Potentially even straight in at its top team alongside Max Verstappen from next year.

The Race understands this is categorically not the case and that Red Bull is not pursuing the Chip Ganassi Racing driver, with Palou and his team also addressing the rumours in recent days.

“There’s been nothing, nothing at all,” Palou said of contact from F1 teams to The Associated Press earlier this week.

“We have heard nothing from anyone.

“The only thing I’ve heard was it was a manager for some other driver in IndyCar who would like to have my seat, who said it to start something.”

Had the name wrong it was Alex Dunne but there are plenty of reports around that Marko too went behind RBGmbH's back in his dealings with drivers. And I think it is likely just how he operated. Corporate over watch though it isn't ideal. But it is what made Red Bull who they were.

[Lasssept]

@jparreiro_SCP