Hi friends
It’s here: The final week of summer shutdown – next week we’re back to the traditional deluge of “It’s Race Week” posts. As is also tradition, F1 news finally slows down for the third week of the shutdown, so this week we’ll be dipping our toes in other series more than usual.
Top story of the week: The appeal of the complaint against Christian Horner for inappropriate behaviour has been dismissed
It’s been fairly quiet around Horner since the WhatsApp leaks back in February, but now the appeal of the internal Red Bull decision on the Christian Horner complaint has been dismissed.
Why is this important? One of the major challenges for Horner’s leadership of Red Bull has now been removed, and Horner seems to have consolidated his position in the internal power struggle that has been going on this season. That’s not to say that it’s over – there will no doubt still be jostling for influence and power for a while to come. And the individual who filed the complaint still has the option to submit a claim to the UK Employment Tribunal, which is the court that handles legal disputes around employment law, such as unfair dismissal and discrimination.
The Employment Tribunal mostly deals in monetary compensation, and there’s no doubt Red Bull’s legal team is pushing for an out-of-court settlement – which does seem to be the likely outcome at the moment.
The rest of the stories this week:
- Valtteri Bottas almost retired from F1 after 2018
- Porsche says F1 is a “closed chapter” after Red Bull deal fell through
- Piastri was nursing a broken rib when he won in Hungary
- Liberty Media is under investigation for potential antitrust practices when rejecting the Andretti bid
- Alexander Rossi has been cleared after his injury and will be back in IndyCar with McLaren next week
- Hyundai could be heading to WEC
- Kyle Larson believes he’s a better all-around driver than Max Verstappen
- World Rally Championship team M-Sport to launch a behind-the-scenes docuseries
- NASCAR issues penalties for Austin Dillon after controversial win at Richmond Raceway ($50k fine, spotter suspended for three races, 25 points deduction in both drivers’ and teams’ championships, no automatic playoff spot for the win – but he gets to keep the win)
- Katherine Legge will race with Dale Coyne Racing in this weekend’s IndyCar race
- The World Motor Sport Council has approved a change to the definition of misconduct to limit the amount of abuse targeted at officials
- Hungaroring is looking quite different at the moment (They’re in the process of tearing down the pit buildings)
- Gordon Ramsay will open a pop-up restaurant in one of the garages during the Las Vegas GP
That’s it for this week. Until next time, thank you for being here.
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