The F1 thread

stickyfiddle

Various things discussed on Reddit suggesting Horner was actually just telling a mid-level employee what to do and she took offence, and the Jos/Marko camp has used this to hype up the possibility of getting Horner out as if that’s somehow in Max’s long term best interests. 

Just as believable as the “Horner is a skeezy POS” option tbh. 

What a lovely bunch of folks the RB team (and hangers-on) seem to be… 

Whatever happens I hope Newey goes to Ferrari!! 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Seems like with the current weight regs, most cars these days are gonna be bare carbon fibre with the odd streak of paint and a couple of sponsor logos. Alpine the latest to launch...

https://twitter.com/AlpineF1Team/status/1755232684123517133

Cols

stickyfiddle said:

Various things discussed on Reddit suggesting Horner was actually just telling a mid-level employee what to do and she took offence, and the Jos/Marko camp has used this to hype up the possibility of getting Horner out as if that’s somehow in Max’s long term best interests. 

Just as believable as the “Horner is a skeezy POS” option tbh. 

What a lovely bunch of folks the RB team (and hangers-on) seem to be… 

Whatever happens I hope Newey goes to Ferrari!! 

Also reported in The Sun, always a bastion of clear and honest journalism:

It is said that ‘Horner had concerns about her (a female employee’s) conduct and made it clear he was unhappy,’ before ‘she went on to make a complaint about his controlling behaviour’.

S56035

He's essentially the CEO isn't he? He's supposed to be in control. Any boss that isn't in control isn't likely to be very good.

Cols

S56035 said:

He's essentially the CEO isn't he? He's supposed to be in control. Any boss that isn't in control isn't likely to be very good.

In this context, “controlling behaviour” means something different than being in control of your team.  For instance:

Using fear and intimidation to get people to do your bidding.

Deliberately withholding information to exert control.

Belittling your staff.

Dominating meetings and talking over people.

Micromanaging.

FWIW: Horner’s been in charge of Red Bull for 19 years, and in that time the team’s won 7 titles.  That’s pretty impressive, and you don’t achieve that by being shit at people management.  Personally I think he’s an arsehole, but something about this doesn’t ring true.

stickyfiddle

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Seems like with the current weight regs, most cars these days are gonna be bare carbon fibre with the odd streak of paint and a couple of sponsor logos. Alpine the latest to launch...

https://twitter.com/AlpineF1Team/status/1755232684123517133

I caught a bit of the livestream launch on YouTube. Those poor drivers being made to talk up the cars potential when they know it’s all new which probably means hard to set up for the first 6 races, and likely scrabbling to get points at all… 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

stickyfiddle said:

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Seems like with the current weight regs, most cars these days are gonna be bare carbon fibre with the odd streak of paint and a couple of sponsor logos. Alpine the latest to launch...

https://twitter.com/AlpineF1Team/status/1755232684123517133

I caught a bit of the livestream launch on YouTube. Those poor drivers being made to talk up the cars potential when they know it’s all new which probably means hard to set up for the first 6 races, and likely scrabbling to get points at all… 

See, this is where the sport is missing someone like Kimi. 

Presenter - "So Kimi, tell us - how excited you are about the new car, and what do you think the potential is for the new season?"

Kimi - "Dunno, never driven it."

</end interview>

skullfunkerry

Cols said:

S56035 said:

He's essentially the CEO isn't he? He's supposed to be in control. Any boss that isn't in control isn't likely to be very good.

In this context, “controlling behaviour” means something different than being in control of your team.  For instance:

Using fear and intimidation to get people to do your bidding.

Deliberately withholding information to exert control.

Belittling your staff.

Dominating meetings and talking over people.

Micromanaging.

FWIW: Horner’s been in charge of Red Bull for 19 years, and in that time the team’s won 7 titles.  That’s pretty impressive, and you don’t achieve that by being shit at people management.  Personally I think he’s an arsehole, but something about this doesn’t ring true.

I might well be being naive in trying to think the best of someone but I've always thought that Christian Horner seemed like a hardnosed bastard but essentially an alright bloke; he's clearly an excellent team boss and you don't get that by being nice, but outside of work I've always had the impression that he'd be quite interesting to talk to and would probably come across pretty well.

I'm ambivalent about Red Bull as a team (although I used to really like the Red Bulletin), and I'm definitely not a Max fan, but I will be quite disappointed if Horner's career ends over this - although I would *love* it if Adrian Newey went to Ferrari and Lewis won another championship or two

markr76

skullfunkerry said:

Cols said:

S56035 said:

He's essentially the CEO isn't he? He's supposed to be in control. Any boss that isn't in control isn't likely to be very good.

In this context, “controlling behaviour” means something different than being in control of your team.  For instance:

Using fear and intimidation to get people to do your bidding.

Deliberately withholding information to exert control.

Belittling your staff.

Dominating meetings and talking over people.

Micromanaging.

FWIW: Horner’s been in charge of Red Bull for 19 years, and in that time the team’s won 7 titles.  That’s pretty impressive, and you don’t achieve that by being shit at people management.  Personally I think he’s an arsehole, but something about this doesn’t ring true.

I might well be being naive in trying to think the best of someone but I've always thought that Christian Horner seemed like a hardnosed bastard but essentially an alright bloke; he's clearly an excellent team boss and you don't get that by being nice, but outside of work I've always had the impression that he'd be quite interesting to talk to and would probably come across pretty well.

I'm ambivalent about Red Bull as a team (although I used to really like the Red Bulletin), and I'm definitely not a Max fan, but I will be quite disappointed if Horner's career ends over this - although I would *love* it if Adrian Newey went to Ferrari and Lewis won another championship or two

From what I’ve heard from people who work at redbull is he seems like quite a nice chap to chat to. 

fretmeister

 

euan

markr76 said:

skullfunkerry said:

Cols said:

S56035 said:

He's essentially the CEO isn't he? He's supposed to be in control. Any boss that isn't in control isn't likely to be very good.

In this context, “controlling behaviour” means something different than being in control of your team.  For instance:

Using fear and intimidation to get people to do your bidding.

Deliberately withholding information to exert control.

Belittling your staff.

Dominating meetings and talking over people.

Micromanaging.

FWIW: Horner’s been in charge of Red Bull for 19 years, and in that time the team’s won 7 titles.  That’s pretty impressive, and you don’t achieve that by being shit at people management.  Personally I think he’s an arsehole, but something about this doesn’t ring true.

I might well be being naive in trying to think the best of someone but I've always thought that Christian Horner seemed like a hardnosed bastard but essentially an alright bloke; he's clearly an excellent team boss and you don't get that by being nice, but outside of work I've always had the impression that he'd be quite interesting to talk to and would probably come across pretty well.

I'm ambivalent about Red Bull as a team (although I used to really like the Red Bulletin), and I'm definitely not a Max fan, but I will be quite disappointed if Horner's career ends over this - although I would *love* it if Adrian Newey went to Ferrari and Lewis won another championship or two

From what I’ve heard from people who work at redbull is he seems like quite a nice chap to chat to. 

Decent chap, who left his partner of 14 years, six months after having a baby for a Spice Girl. Clearly so decent that his parents stopped talking to him and didn’t come to his wedding as well as wider family. 

markr76

euan said:

markr76 said:

skullfunkerry said:

Cols said:

S56035 said:

He's essentially the CEO isn't he? He's supposed to be in control. Any boss that isn't in control isn't likely to be very good.

In this context, “controlling behaviour” means something different than being in control of your team.  For instance:

Using fear and intimidation to get people to do your bidding.

Deliberately withholding information to exert control.

Belittling your staff.

Dominating meetings and talking over people.

Micromanaging.

FWIW: Horner’s been in charge of Red Bull for 19 years, and in that time the team’s won 7 titles.  That’s pretty impressive, and you don’t achieve that by being shit at people management.  Personally I think he’s an arsehole, but something about this doesn’t ring true.

I might well be being naive in trying to think the best of someone but I've always thought that Christian Horner seemed like a hardnosed bastard but essentially an alright bloke; he's clearly an excellent team boss and you don't get that by being nice, but outside of work I've always had the impression that he'd be quite interesting to talk to and would probably come across pretty well.

I'm ambivalent about Red Bull as a team (although I used to really like the Red Bulletin), and I'm definitely not a Max fan, but I will be quite disappointed if Horner's career ends over this - although I would *love* it if Adrian Newey went to Ferrari and Lewis won another championship or two

From what I’ve heard from people who work at redbull is he seems like quite a nice chap to chat to. 

Decent chap, who left his partner of 14 years, six months after having a baby for a Spice Girl. Clearly so decent that his parents stopped talking to him and didn’t come to his wedding as well as wider family. 

Thing is though. All that stuff is his personal business. For all we know his ex wife might have been a complete bitch. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors. 

Cols

euan said:

Decent chap, who left his partner of 14 years, six months after having a baby for a Spice Girl. 

But if he hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t be able to make all the excellent Whinger Spice jokes!

euan

markr76 said:

Thing is though. All that stuff is his personal business. For all we know his ex wife might have been a complete bitch. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors. 

So we are in agreement that someone can present one way to a group of people and be a horrible bastard to an individual in private?

skullfunkerry

euan said:

markr76 said:

Thing is though. All that stuff is his personal business. For all we know his ex wife might have been a complete bitch. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors. 

So we are in agreement that someone can present one way to a group of people and be a horrible bastard to an individual in private?

I don’t think that’s what any of us are saying. I said that I thought he seemed like a decent bloke (I’ll admit, I didn’t know about his marital journey), and Mark said that he knows people who said that he’s a nice chap to chat to; and that we don’t know the ins and outs of his first marriage.

Leaving someone is never nice, but sometimes there is a valid reason. I don’t know anything about Christian Horner other than what I’ve seen on TV (races and Drive to Survive), or read online. I can’t comment on wy he left, but I can say that I left my first wife because she was a control freak who was abusing me. Lots of people thought I was the bad guy (and lots of them cut me off completely) because I never told anyone what was going on at home.

danishbacon

Nice piece on PF1 https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-hamilton-michael-schumacher-compared-f1

@markr76 did you get to work with Aldo?

markr76

danishbacon said:

Nice piece on PF1 https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-hamilton-michael-schumacher-compared-f1

@markr76 did you get to work with Aldo?

Yes. Although I only spoke to him a couple of times personally. He was very well thought of here at Mercedes. To be honest a lot of the top technical people I’ve met and chatted to since I’ve been in F1 were nice to talk to. James Allison in particular. He’s extremely nice and very funny. Also very interesting and eloquent when he speaks. 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

New Aston Martin revealed. Quite a handsome thing IMO...

fretmeister

euan said:

markr76 said:

Thing is though. All that stuff is his personal business. For all we know his ex wife might have been a complete bitch. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors. 

So we are in agreement that someone can present one way to a group of people and be a horrible bastard to an individual in private?

Dr Crippen had character witnesses at his trial.

skullfunkerry

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

New Aston Martin revealed. Quite a handsome thing IMO...

I think it looks great; although I’m not sure I can spot any differences to last year’s car. Slightly darker shade of green?