Launch season is almost on our doorstep, and the paddock chatter hasn’t exactly gone quiet in the meantime. Red Bull’s past, present and side projects all surfaced today, with a Williams love-in for Carlos Sainz, Mercedes lifting the lid on a misstep, and Oscar Piastri explaining why cool heads win races.
Verstappen still leans on Horner
Max Verstappen says he still talks to Christian Horner at every race weekend, even after Horner’s exit from Red Bull last July. The reigning four-time champion called his former team boss someone who “went through fire for me,” a reminder that in F1, the relationships outlast the job titles. Horner, of course, was in charge for Verstappen’s entire title haul to date; the pair built an era together. And regardless of the politics, Verstappen keeping that line open tells you everything about how deeply those years ran.
RB17 lands its final form
Away from the grand prix car, Red Bull Advanced Technologies rolled out the final design direction for the RB17 hypercar. It’s the last road-adjacent machine to carry Adrian Newey’s fingerprints before his move to Aston Martin, though technical chief Rob Gray was clear the baton had already been passed internally. Newey was “only a call away” if needed late on, but his influence naturally tapered as the project matured.
The headline stats read like candy for the mechanically inclined: a Cosworth V10 revving to 15,000rpm and F1-grade power targets, with just 50 chassis to be built. If the idea was to bottle the feeling of an early-2000s qualifying lap and sell it to the well-heeled, mission accomplished.
Sainz earns high marks at Williams
James Vowles rarely gushes, but he’s been happy to do so about Carlos Sainz as the Spaniard wrapped his first season in Grove. The Williams boss admitted the pairing took longer than either expected to fully click with the FW47, yet Sainz’s influence has been “even better than expected” behind the scenes. What impressed Vowles most? The Spaniard’s habit of going far deeper into the data than most drivers. He called Sainz’s ability to pinpoint and prioritize the right changes “very rare” — the kind of feedback loop a team in the climb phase craves.
Mercedes on the suspension U‑turn
Mercedes offered a rare, clear-eyed look at a decision that didn’t work. Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained why the team reversed a mid-season rear suspension update after the numbers drifted the wrong way. In short: the concept’s gains were theoretical; the reality was a “confusing” European stretch where balance and tire performance moved away from what the models promised. Credit to Mercedes for blinking fast — the rollback steadied the platform and fed into the spec we saw later on. It’s the sort of call that doesn’t make a highlight reel, but it’s how you stop a wobble from becoming a spiral.
Piastri on choosing ice over fire
Oscar Piastri’s unflappable vibe isn’t an accident. The McLaren driver said he has deliberately trained himself to stay level without turning robotic. “There’s been conscious effort not being too fired up and getting too emotional,” he said on Off The Grid, “but also having some emotion and some passion in there.” The balance is the point: you don’t want to care so little that nothing happens, but you don’t want to be a passenger to adrenaline, either. It tracks with the Australian’s racecraft — clinical when it matters, spiky when it counts.
A quick look ahead
Red Bull and Racing Bulls are due to reveal their new looks within a fortnight, with the rest of the grid following in short order. Between a champion who still calls his old boss, a hypercar that howls to 15,000rpm, and a data-hungry Sainz settling into Grove, the off-season suddenly doesn’t feel so off.
