One of F1’s most explosive and longstanding rivalries is set to reignite over a $850m bidding war, while McLaren has turned the heat on Mercedes ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix.
The team is looking for answers as to why they were much slower than the German powerhouse in Australia, leading to explosive claims from McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.
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Meanwhile, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has made a move that will ruffle the feathers of former Red Bull sparring partner Christian Horner.
All this and more in our latest Pit Talk!
Rivalry set to reignite over $850m bidding war
Wolff v Horner has reignited with reports of a bidding war erupting over a minority stake in Alpine.
According to The Telegraph, Mercedes team boss Wolff has emerged as the leading candidate to claim Otro Capital’s 24 per cent stake in the F1 outfit.
The stake is the same that Horner — who shared a long and bitter rivalry with Wolff before his Red Bull sacking last year — has been confirmed by Alpine executive adviser Flavio Briatore as being interested in.
Based on a recent evaluation of the Enstone team, the 24 per cent stake is believed to be worth around £448m (A$851m).
Mercedes already shares a working relationship with Alpine, who is committed to use its power units and gearboxes through 2030.
Should Wolff acquire the stake, it brings the two companies closer and will reignite debate around team ownership in F1.
Merc Dominate as Ferrari call backfires | 02:25
Red Bull’s ownership of two teams on the grid — Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls — has long been a controversial topic in the paddock with rivals concerned about the potential conflict of interest.
Renault Group would retain the majority share in Alpine at 76 per cent, but the strengthening of ties would trigger a fresh round of concerns, particularly from McLaren, whose chief Zak Brown has led the charge for the FIA to ban such unions.
But in the short term, Wolff’s interest is notable for bringing his frosty relationship with Horner back into the spotlight.
Horner has been targeting Alpine as his avenue back into F1 after his unceremonious dumping by Red Bull, where he led four world championships each to Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.
Toto Wolff and Christian Horner are long-time rivals.Source: Getty Images
He had been the latest big-name linked to a star-studded list of team investors, which include Rory McIlroy, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Anthony Joshua, Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
Spokespeople from both Mercedes and Alpine refused to confirm or deny that Wolff was a leading bidder, when contacted by The Telegraph.
“Mercedes is a key strategic partner of Alpine and we are being kept apprised of the latest developments,” a Mercedes spokesperson told the publication.
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Stella turns heat on Mercedes in bold claim
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has suggested that his team has been partially frozen out by its power unit supplier, Mercedes, with its works team emerging as a clear world championship favourite.
Mercedes blew McLaren out of the water in Melbourne, with both cars dominating qualifying before George Russell won the race ahead of teammate Kimi Antonelli.
McLaren’s world champion driver, Lando Norris, qualified sixth, and finished a distant fifth, with the only position he gained being that of Oscar Piastri, who didn’t make it to the starting grid.
Though Mercedes was expected to benefit heading into a new era of regulations being a works outfit, Stella claimed that the information gap has been larger than ever before.
“The discussion with HPP (Mercedes High Performance Powertrains) about having more information has been going on for weeks,” he said.
Stella went on to give an explanation that McLaren wasn’t able to predict the behaviour of its car as well as Mercedes due to a lack of information.
“I have to say, since we are a customer team (of Mercedes), this is the first time that we feel we are on the back foot even when it comes to the ability to predict how the car will behave and the ability to anticipate how we can improve the car,” Stella said.
Adding weight to the claim is the fact Piastri was caught by surprise on a recon lap in Melbourne when his power unit delivered “100kW more power than expected”, causing him to crash.
Australian Formula 1 McLaren driver Oscar Piastri crashes out of the Australian Grand Prix on the warm-up lap Picture F1 TV.Source: Supplied Source Known
Another key factor at play is this year’s technical regulations, in which cars run on a 50-50 split of engine and battery power. The need for the engine to play a role in charging the battery causes unusual car behaviours for the drivers to manage.
“Certainly, these power units can be quite aggressive when they release all the power,” Stella said.
“We talk about 1000 horsepower coming all together, and when the tyres may be a little on the cold side, or if this power comes in an unpredictable way, like it happened to Oscar, then it can become very tricky.
“I don’t want to be here and saying I have an easy solution – I don’t – but I’m here saying we should look into the regulations.
“The accidents (in Melbourne), they are kind of not a near miss, they are very material indication that there’s work to do, so we should do this work as an F1 community.”
Verstappen news to raise eyebrows
Max Verstappen will tick a bucket list item off this year when he competes in the Nurburgring 24 Hours between the Miami and Canadian Grands Prix.
It was confirmed on Monday that Verstappen would take to the Nordschleife in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 with a Red Bull livery.
“The Nurburgring Nordschleife is a special place,” Verstappen said.
“There’s no other track like it. The 24h Nürburgring is a race that’s been on my bucket list for a long time, so I’m really thrilled we can make it happen now.”
The confirmation is notable for two main reasons.
Firstly, though not unheard of, it’s unusual for a star F1 driver to take leave mid-season to compete in a different category of racing.
Such arrangements are normally reserved for situations in which a team is trying to meet the needs of a big-name driver to maintain harmony. For example, McLaren allowed Fernando Alonso to race in the Indy500 and Le Mans 24 Hours as he attempted to claim motorsport’s Triple Crown, and while the team was languishing in F1’s midfield.
The Verstappen announcement comes with the four-time world champion fuming over the state of F1’s rules in 2026, while he has on multiple occasions suggested he would quit the category altogether if unsatisfied.
“Maybe it’s then better to drive Formula E, because that’s all about energy, efficiency and management” he said earlier this year.
“We’re still racing in Formula 1 and that’s great, but once you’ve already won and achieved everything, then it’s not really necessary [to stay around] anymore.
“There are a lot of other nice things you can do, and I’m definitely going to do those — maybe already this year and also in the coming years.
“This certainly doesn’t help to keep going for a very long time.”
Furthermore, the fact he’ll be racing in a Mercedes is sure to raise eyebrows.
Mercedes boss Wolff has made no secret of his admiration of Verstappen, who is widely believed to have an exit clause in his Red Bull contract should the team no longer be competing for world championships.
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies was in Melbourne forced to answer questions about Verstappen’s level of satisfaction as doubts over his future bubble away.
He insisted he wasn’t concerned about Verstappen losing motivation to complete in F1 with the Dutchman still contracted at Red Bull until after the 2028 season.
“No, no. When he’s with us, as far as the relationship with the team is concerned, there is absolutely no difference compared to last year in terms of how hard he’s pushing on every single detail and how precise he is in his feedback on every single thing,” Mekies said.
“So, he’s able to put his personal preferences on the side when he debriefs with us and when we are chasing the performance together.
“I think Max cares about the sport and he’s giving us a lot of input on what he thinks could be improvements.”
‘He f***ing sucks, dude’: Fiery F1 clash you didn’t see as bad blood reignites
The F1 feud between Liam Lawson and Sergio Perez is back with a heated run-in between the pair at the Australian Grand Prix coming to light.
Scrapping for 16th at Melbourne’s Albert Park, Lawson eventually passed Cadillac driver Perez, but not before some robust defensive moves that saw his Racing Bulls rival squeezed off the track.
“There’s no love lost between those two ever, is there?” David Croft noted in commentary on Sky Sports.
Lawson won the battle and declared over team radio afterward: “That guy f***ing sucks, dude.”
The heated rivalry between the pair stems back to the 2024 season, in which Perez was on the brink of being sacked by Red Bull with Lawson his prime replacement candidate.
They came together at Perez’s home Mexican Grand Prix, in which Lawson gave the veteran the middle finger.
“Two years later he’s not over it,” Lawson told media in Melbourne on Sunday. “He’s fighting me like it’s for the world championship and we’re P16 – so, yeah.
“Obviously I don’t really care too much. My race was already over at that point, so we’ll just move on from it.”
Asked about if he felt Perez should’ve been penalised, he said: “It wasn’t anything illegal, he was just aggressive. Honestly, I don’t care. It was for P16.”
Perez, meanwhile, insisted there was nothing untoward with his defensive tactics.
“I was just trying to race him,” Perez said. “It was a bit of fun racing, and that’s really it.
“I was in a much slower car, so I think it’s just fine to race.”
Scary near miss at the back of the grid! | 00:42
‘Not again’
For all the changes in F1 this year, one thing remains constant — Ferrari coming under fire for a strategy bungle.
Ferrari took the fight to Mercedes in Melbourne but have ultimately been forced to answer questions over why they pitted neither Charles Leclerc or Lewis Hamilton under an early Virtual Safety Car.
After a closely-fought opening 10 laps, the move put the race in the hands of Mercedes’ George Russell, who won comfortably in the end.
Ferrari insisted it had no regrets with its call, but the scrutiny remains with Juan Pablo Montoya turning the blowtorch on the team.
“Surprised but not surprised at Ferrari with the strategy to be honest. I was kind of shocked. You should have at least divided the cars,” he said on F1 TV.
‘THIS IS A DISASTER!’: Piastri Crashes! | 01:42
“Mercedes was very clear in what they were doing, and hats off again to Mercedes. They executed well, and Lewis did pretty good. I was impressed.”
He added: “No, honestly, we always complained last year that Ferrari was never aggressive enough and they always missed a strategy, and in my opinion, they did again.
“I think maybe they didn’t have a car to win, but they brought the fight to Mercedes. They got the start. They were holding position. I think Charles did an amazing job coming back to George over and over again, and he was looking really good.
“And then the [virtual] safety car comes out and it’s like everybody but them [pitted]. It’s like, ‘not again’. It’s like, ‘why?’ At some point there’s got to be somebody going, ‘Are we really the odd man out?’ We can’t have 10 smart teams… You have 10 smart teams and one missing it and in their mind thinking everybody is getting it wrong.”