The build-up to the Belgian Grand Prix weekend naturally targeted so much on Christian Horner’s departure from Pink Bull Racing, and the impression that will have on the crew 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 Pink Bull when he signed his newest contract.
That’s an intention that also feels removed from sure long run, however as for a right away departure, it seems Verstappen might be staying put for 2026 at the very least. A press release attributed to crew 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 time shutdown.
Add within the understanding that talks between Mercedes and George Russell over a multi-year extension are heading in a constructive path, and it appears more and more possible that – if it had been to occur – any transfer for Verstappen can be in 2027 and would see him paired with Russell as a part of a really attractive line-up, fairly than changing the Briton.
The discussions between Verstappen and Mercedes had been made public by Russell, and clearly didn’t go down significantly properly with Horner previous to his dismissal. The previous crew 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 driving force contract focus, given the historical past between Pink Bull and Mercedes. 2021 was the nadir, however set the tone for ongoing rigidity between Horner and Mercedes crew 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 fascinating alternative for a reset within the Pink Bull and Mercedes relationship.
New crew 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 crew 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 would evolve from his new position.
So there was an fascinating prevalence in the course of 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 delicate as Mekies walked by way of 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 attempting to seize interviews. At the moment, the motion of a crew principal is all the time prone to catch the attention, since you typically 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 urged some in-depth discussions.
It was additionally observed by at the very least one rival crew boss, partly as a result of it was so uncommon for Mekies’ predecessor and the Mercedes crew 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 bear in mind a time I noticed both Horner or Wolff stroll into the opposite’s motorhome, and definitely not when it was for something apart from a wider group assembly.
Whereas rivals on observe, Ferrari, Pink Bull and Mercedes have purpose to make widespread trigger off it. Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Photos
They may not each finally exist to promote the identical product, however Mercedes and Pink Bull have extra in widespread than you would possibly suppose as Method 1 groups, and Wolff felt an extending of an olive department at first of the latter’s subsequent period was useful to each.
In 2026, Pink Bull will be a part of Mercedes, Ferrari and newcomers Audi as the one groups that manufacture their very own chassis and energy models. As such, these 4 are in a special place to the opposite 10 (or 11 from subsequent yr) groups on the grid, on the subject of future instructions of rules and prices.
At a time when there’s uncertainty over future instructions for energy models past the 2026 rules, and each Wolff and Mekies felt it could be of their greatest pursuits to grasp what the opposite’s intentions and preferences are for the game as a complete transferring ahead.
It’s the type 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. Pink Bull has been a little bit of an outlier underneath Horner, the place there was a special degree of collaboration on wider matters off-track.
Having a greater working relationship might show essential 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 essential for the game’s primary 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 crew’s preferences or necessities are, then it supplies a greater probability of progress being made in what can typically be combative environments.
Groups will all the time battle one another laborious on observe, and there would definitely be no love misplaced if Pink Bull had been to ultimately lose Verstappen to Mercedes in 2027 or past. However the change in management in Milton Keynes has supplied a chance for a extra amicable off-track dynamic, and the 2 crew bosses wasted no time in attempting to kick-start it in Belgium.
Till they’re preventing one another for championships once more, that relationship has a greater probability of getting off on a stronger footing.
