Paddock Briefing: Wolff’s jab at Horner, Brown pushes back on Palou, Ferrari heat rises, and Browning gets the call
It’s one of those Tuesdays where the sport can’t sit still. The headlines span old feuds, legal wrangles and a rookie chance that could turn a few heads in Mexico City.
First, the jab that landed. Susie Wolff, who runs the F1 Academy and knows exactly how the F1 machine works, suggested Christian Horner “played a character very well” during his Red Bull reign. It’s a neat way of saying the public Horner wasn’t always the private one — and it comes after his abrupt exit in the aftermath of the British Grand Prix. After more than two decades in charge, Horner is out, a settlement reportedly agreed, and, if you believe the murmurings, free to plot a return to the grid as soon as 2026. Whether anyone wants that “character” back is another question entirely.
Over at McLaren, Zak Brown has poured cold water on a curious claim from Alex Palou that the CEO had little say in the decision to sign Oscar Piastri for 2023. That assertion bubbled up during McLaren’s legal action against the four-time IndyCar champion, who walked away from a deal to join their IndyCar outfit. McLaren is pursuing damages north of $20 million — and Brown calling the Piastri angle “ludicrous” tells you how little appetite there is in Woking for revisiting a saga they consider closed. Piastri’s been part of the furniture for two seasons now; this feels like courtroom shrapnel rather than live paddock politics.
Ferrari, meanwhile, can’t escape the spotlight even when it’s not race week. Despite Fred Vasseur signing a multi-year extension earlier this season, fresh questions are being asked over his future. The team has already had to deny talk of a “heated confrontation” between Vasseur and a senior engineer after Singapore. Add the uncomfortable stat that Ferrari are still chasing a first win of 2025 with the calendar thinning out, and you get the picture: Maranello’s pressure cooker is back on a rolling boil. Vasseur was hired to bring calm and clarity after years of churn. Rumour season will test both.
There’s a more straightforward story at Williams: Luke Browning is getting another bite at FP1. The 23-year-old from Cheshire, a Williams junior and one of F2’s standout rookies this season, will take over Carlos Sainz’s car for first practice at the Mexican Grand Prix later this month. Browning’s already had a taste — he ran in Bahrain FP1 back in April — and he’s kept himself in the conversation with an eye-catching campaign that has him sitting third in the F2 standings heading into Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Sainz missing the session is purely procedural; for Williams, this is about seat time for a prospect who’s doing all the right things at the right time.
And circling back to Susie Wolff — the other thread today — she’s confirmed her legal action against the FIA remains active following that short-lived conflict-of-interest probe in late 2023. She filed a criminal complaint in France in March last year and hasn’t let it drop. It’s rare to see a senior figure in the paddock take on the governing body in this way, and it speaks to the unresolved tension from that episode. The sport has moved on, mostly, but the legalities haven’t.
Taken together, the day’s news underlines where F1 is in 2025: the on-track fight is tight, the off-track stakes are tighter, and reputations — whether that’s a long-serving team boss, a star CEO, or a rising junior — are constantly in play. Horner’s legacy is being reappraised in real time, Brown’s guarding the narrative around McLaren’s driver choices, Ferrari’s leadership faces another round of scrutiny, and Williams is doing what Williams should do: developing talent in full view.
No grand conclusions necessary. Just a reminder that the season doesn’t pause for breath, even when the cars do.
