Max Verstappen
The recent and spectacular sight of Max Verstappen driving a Red Bull car down an Austrian ski slope was a reminder that this team have the greatest showmen in Formula One.
F1, ridiculously, doesn’t have a marketing department. It relies on the media to promote the sport and then gets sulky when we criticise, as well as praise.
Red Bull, more than any other team, understand marketing. So it’s a pity their long-term future in the sport will once again be a talking point this year after the rejection this week of a plan to introduce a cheaper alternative engine.
The team who totally dominated F1 for four years between 2010-2013 are basically back where they were last year, looking for a new engine supplier. They have a make-do-and-mend solution for the coming season. They will continue with a Renault power unit, although it will be TAG-Heuer rebranded, after their new sponsors. But the Renault deal expires at the end of the year. About time too, given the sour atmosphere between the two parties.
So Red Bull will once again be looking for fresh power, for 2017, and Mercedes, Ferrari and Honda didn’t look in the mood to extend a helping hand last year. Red Bull have also been frustrated by the recent watering down of radical plans to make cars more aggressive and five seconds a lap faster in 2017. A return to the drawing board for Adrian Newey, with the prospect of more downforce, would have suited Red Bull just dandy.
Last year a number of prominent people at Red Bull, including owner Dietrich Mateschitz, made repeated threats that the team would quit the sport unless they could find a competitive engine, even though they have a contract running to 2020.
They have had some difficulty coming to terms with the fact that Mercedes, the double champions of the past two seasons, are even more dominant today than they were a few years ago.
Back to the engines, the big teams have agreed to cut the cost of the engines they provide for their customers. It was also agreed to continue with the existing V6 turbo hybrid power units until 2020.

Christmas in the garage

Christmas was famously cancelled, you may remember, by the late Alan Rickman’s Sheriff of Nottingham – a bravura, panto-villain performance in Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Well, the festive fun really was cancelled for the McLaren team, to ensure their car would be ready for next month’s opening test session in Barcelona and the opening race of the season in Melbourne on 20 March.
There are people out there who think Formula One folk jaunt around the world’s most glamorous locations for nine months before taking three months’ holiday. It doesn’t quite work like that.
McLaren, like everyone else, were wrong-footed when the Australian Grand Prix, originally slotted for 3 April, was moved forward by two weeks. A mate of mine, who has never been to an F1 race before, will be twiddling his thumbs in Melbourne on 3 April – he purchased a cheap ticket and is unable to change it.
McLaren had 110 people working a shift pattern over the Christmas period to ensure they were on target for the new-look calendar.
McLaren Racing’s operations director, Simon Roberts, said: “In simple terms, we put about eight shifts of work back into the programme over a five-day period – a fantastic effort. In total, there were about 110 people involved and we looked after our Christmas workers with a competitive package.
“We had a really good response, and people seemed to enjoy it too – it was a bit weird, not having all the time off, but there was a good spirit in the place. Everyone knew why they were doing it, and it really cleared the decks.
“Most pleasingly, it meant that, once we came back in the new year, we were back on schedule – and it felt like the programme had always been phased that way. It was an incredible effort.”