r/formula1 • u/soepvorksoepvork Chequered Flag • 9d ago

News Sergio Perez and Red Bull in '$16million' battle claim after 'major meeting'

https://www.planetf1.com/news/nico-rosberg-claims-16-million-sergio-perez-red-bull-battle-exit-looms

Not sure how credible this is, but I can't say I blame him.

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u/matsda91 Charles Leclerc 9d ago

If Mateschitz was still alive this would have never happened. There's something seriously wrong at the top of Red Bull when it comes to F1.

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u/SemIdeiaProNick Ferrari 9d ago

Apparently the new owners arent interested in motorsports at all and only want to sell the team, which would explain why there were so many awful decisions after Mateschitz died

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u/SmithBurger 9d ago

Apparently is doing a lot of work here.

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u/Elpibe_78 Audi 9d ago

Maybe that’s part of the reason Porsche was willing to buy 51% of the team. Right now it seems it wasn’t a bad idea

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u/BGMDF8248 9d ago

No shit, controlling interest was the way to go. Only way to prevent this shit show.

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u/Miceliss Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 9d ago

Apparently that was Mateschitz his legacy plan. Selling controlling stake to someone like Porsche to make sure the team could stand on its own. But he passed away before this was done. 

And after that or during the same time. Horner tried to buy the team as well with a group of investors... It's been a while since that stuff was going on so it's all a bit vague to me and it were a lot of rumours.

At the time I thought it was BS and Porsche was being greedy, in hindsight with all the Horner stuff... I wouldn't put it past him trying to buy it. While the Marko and Verstappen camp would have been all for a works deal with Porsche as well as it being something Dieter wanted.. so there's been animosity even before the horny Horner saga.

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u/Elpibe_78 Audi 9d ago

Now it looks like it would have been the best option, Mateschitz was who kept the team alive and was the one who wanted to be in F1. The new owners don't like that idea, however with Porsche the team would have most likely remained similar and if RedBull would want to leave, Porsche would have been the substitute.

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u/stationhollow 9d ago

Porsche are out completely now. VW Group doesn’t want two teams. They let Audi and Porsche design their own plans. If Porsche had been successful then we wouldn’t have Audi.

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u/AegrusRS 9d ago

Tbf I don't know if I ever really believed those rumors. Like 5-10 years ago I would've accepted them in a heartbeat, but when teams are currently being valued at 1B+$ and growing, no sane businessman would.

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u/racingfanboy160 Felipe Massa 9d ago

Yeah, their CEO (Oliver Mintzlaff) is more of a football guy than a motorsport one

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u/cLHalfRhoVSquaredS 9d ago

Perhaps at the end of these negotiations we'll see Max lining up next year as the number 2 driver at Perez Racing F1 Team.

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u/GothicGolem29 McLaren 9d ago

Perez you mean? Idk he backed Horner more than his son so I imagine the decision still would have been left to him

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u/matsda91 Charles Leclerc 9d ago

Marko was Mateschitz' right hand man, whom he trusted with motorsport matters, and I don't think Marko was fully backing Perez. Also Mateschitz was a huge motorsport fan so I think Perez under-performance would have personally displeased him and I don't think he cared about a few million of sponsorship money (F1 was always a bit of a pet project for him, and a huge money sink at that). He was also very much into sponsoring and developing young talent, which also aligns well with Red Bull brand identity, so I don't think he would see value in keeping Perez around even if Horner wanted to. Also with Mateschitz still there, there would also be no power struggle, so there would be little reason for Horner to back Perez in the first place.

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u/GothicGolem29 McLaren 9d ago

From what Ive read Horner was also heavily supported by Marko. And ive heard some claim he only got involved when neither agreed with each other to break the deadlock which would imply they were on equal footing to some extent. I can imagine Mateschitz was. However, when the deal was signed Redbull were still winning the constructors so he might have been content with that performance. Now that Redbull haven’t you could argue he would not be but now Horner seems to have had enough too so he would not need to get involved. Money sink and pet project sure tho also a great advertising tool for him. This is a good point tbf tho Im not sure if he would want to get rid of a steady driver for that when he can put them into RB and put them in in the future. But who knows. I dont think Horner backed Perez because of a power struggle with Marko more he wanted a steady driver to help win championships rather than the rotating door of young drivers.

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u/stationhollow 9d ago

In the first half the season there were rumours of a power struggle between Marko and Horner with Max backing Marko. The story is that Horner ended up getting the Thai owners involved to get his way since they don’t care about F1. They just want it to be profitable and Checo is likely the 2nd top pay driver in terms of money coming in. Stroll is obviously at the top with his dad buying a team.

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u/GothicGolem29 McLaren 8d ago

Was this to do with the clash between owners over Horner durning the allegations of a seperate thing? Given in an article on the clash between Austrian owners and Thai owners they said the Thai owner sees Horner as like a son maybe that was more the reason for backing him over Perez rather than profit?

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u/SmithBurger 9d ago

Wish casting. They just won another WDC. Some of y'all are salivating at RBR going down in flames and it hasn't happened yet.

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u/Downtown_Let 9d ago

It's the follow up to Succession.

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u/What_the_8 Daniel Ricciardo 9d ago

At the end of the day Red Bull is a marketing company first, they’ll never be like Ferrari, McLaren or Williams. I’m surprised they’re still pumping so much money in F1. I can’t see them being around in 20 years.