Flavio Briatore has returned in his inimitable style to the Formula One paddock. Tasked with turning around the fortunes for the ailing Alpine team, the flamboyant Italian waltzed back in to his former playground announcing he was looking to do a deal which will see Mercedes deliver Alpine’s power units and possibly even from 2025.

Of course the story first aired in Barcelona, is part of Briatore’s efforts to recruit Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard is as yet undecided as to where his future lies, holding out for a possible seat with either Red Bull or Racing or Mercedes.

Yet with a strong performance in both the F2 Sprint and in winning the feature race on Sunday, Kimi Antonelli has made a step closer to claiming the vacant Lewis Hamilton seat for next year.

 

 

 

Briatore’s spins Mercedes powertrain story

Toto Wolff is petrified he may lose the Mercedes young protege having been scarred by missing out on Max Verstappen prior to his GP3 (F3) debut, when Red Bull snatched up the Dutch driver and the rest is history.

And so the paddock expectation is that Antonelli will be announced by Mercedes very soon to ensure he doesn’t end up at another team. With Mercedes out of the equation, Sainz can wait it out until Red Bull declare their hand for 2025 although this may be some way off even if Sergio Perez is ditched following this race weekend in Spa.

This would indubitably see Daniel Ricciardo move up alongside Max, but even this would be on a trial basis and only to the end of the season. Should Ricciardo fail to deliver, then it could be Red Bull look outside again for an experienced driver alongside Max for 2025.

Briatore is betting that neither option will come off and the report of a Mercedes power unit deal for Alpine grows ever stronger and a pull for Sainz. Yet all the time Renault’s high performance engine department in Viry-Chatillon appear to know little about this and engineers reading the rumours in the public domain are presumably no happy.

Marko books flight for showdown talks with Horner

 

 

 

Alpine face walk out over engine supply

Joe Saward speculates: “There are very real fears in the team that this will lead to a strike and that Alpine could face a situation of not having engines at some races this year. The Renault management has not handled this well and the unions will have no qualms about giving them a public spanking to their sins… It will take some fast talking to solve this problem…”

The problem is time is running out and Carlos Sainz has been around the block enough times to know that words are meaningless if not backed upon by a contract. But how quickly a contract between the French team and Mercedes can be agreed and produced, is anyone’s guess.

The last team to face the possibility of having no power unit was Red Bull following the disastrous start by Renault in producing the new V6 hybrid turbo engines. Mercedes however aced their V6 monster and dominated the sport for several seasons before the power units began to converge.

Red Bull were furious with Renault’s apparent ‘devil may care’ attitude to the deficit and a very public spat began between the two parties. Stating they wanted to ditch the Renault Powertrains supply, the team from Milton Keynes faced a stony silence from. Both Mercedes and Ferrari and appeared to be out of options.

Audi sack infighting project F1 leaders

 

 

 

Wolff still hoping for Max

Having experienced their own battles with McLaren, at the last minute Honda decided to supply the Red Bull outfits as the papaya liveried team had ditched them for Mercedes. Having won a drivers’ world championship, corporate Honda back in Japan decided to ditch its F1 programme to focus on alternative green solutions to deliver power for its road car divisions.

Once again the executives in Japan flip flopped deciding the new F1 power units and sustainable fuels ear marked for 2026 were in fact in line with corporate objectives, but by now Red Bull had made the decision to never be reliant again on a manufacturer and Red Bull Powertrains was born.

Powertrains were the lure used also by Toto Wolff to woo Max Verstappen. Speaking early in June the Mercedes boss claimed: “We have an engine department that is good as it can be with a top leadership. There is not a millimetre in HPP that I wish would be different in terms of organisational set-up, in terms of the people that work there that I am lucky to interact with, it’s just a perfect organisation.”

And last weekend in Hungary, Wolff was again suggesting he believed there was yet hope ax Verstappen would join his team for next season. When pressed on who Hamilton’s replacement will be, Toto replied: “As for the rest of the driver market, there is something instinctive that tells me ‘Don’t rush’ and I can’t even tell you what it is,” he said, smiling at Sky F1 broadcaster and former Mercedes driver, Nico Rosberg.

Paddock shock with returning boss

 

 

 

Marko’s contract extension says it all

The German, who won the drivers’ 2016 title with Mercedes concluded: “That can only be a certain Max Verstappen, who hasn’t made his mind up yet, if I can just jump in there!”

Toto reminded his former driver that huge shocks have always been the way of F1. Referring back to his title winning year and subsequent immediate retirement Toto joked: “I had a really good relationship with a driver called Nico Rosberg, who was at the peak of his doing, won a championship, and then he said ‘I don’t want this anymore’ so, you know, [strange] things can happen!”

The reality is that the recent announcement that Dr. Helmut Marko has signed a contract extension until the end of 2026 means ion all likelihood Max will remain at Red Bull and see how the new power unit regulations pan out that season.

An additional clause inserted stated that any absence by Marko from the Red Bull trackside operations cannot be used as an excuse my Max to breach his contract with the team.

Rosberg fuels latest BIG Verstappen rumour

 

 

 

Verstappen stiff penalty coming in Sp

Max Verstappen must be wondering if he’s entered an alternative world of Formula One in recent weeks. The world champion hasn’t won since Barcelona and the McLaren cars now look quicker than the RB20 and at a variety of circuit layouts.

The upcoming Belgium Grand Prix with its regular race weekend format was to be an opportunity for Red Bull to understand better the upgrades it brought to Hungary last time out.

Yet Max heads into the weekend having already used four internal combustion engines (ICE), turbochargers, MGU-Hs and MGU-K units, as well as two control electronics and energy stores, which places him on the brink of requiring extra components over and above the FIA specified allowance for the season.   READ MORE