📍 ‘New Faces, Old Ambitions.’
No Grand Prix last weekend. Naturally, Formula One has found other ways to keep itself occupied.
Haas has signed another Ferrari prodigy, Red Bull has secured its team principal until 2031, and Rwanda has agreed a deal to bring Grand Prix racing back to Africa.
Meanwhile, Christian Horner is contemplating a comeback.
The engines may be silent. The politics certainly aren’t.
♔ Full Story
▪️Formula One’s travelling circus has a weekend off. The boardrooms, apparently, haven’t received the memorandum.
▪️With Austin approaching, attention is shifting towards contracts, investment and the sport’s increasingly global ambitions.
♔ The paddock intelligence:
▪️15 October — Haas: Brazilian Formula 2 leader Rafael Câmara, 21, will replace Esteban Ocon in 2027. Ferrari’s talent pipeline delivers another graduate.
▪️14 October — Red Bull: Laurent Mekies has secured a contract extension through 2031. Stability, following considerable upheaval, is suddenly fashionable.
▪️13 October — Rwanda: A ten-year agreement promises Formula One’s return to Africa in the early 2030s, subject to the planned circuit’s completion.
▪️13 October — Horner: The former Red Bull chief has indicated that any return would need an ownership stake. Apparently, the team principal’s chair is no longer quite enough.
▪️Next stop: Austin, 23–25 October, for the United States Grand Prix.
♔ The Fisherley View
Formula One increasingly resembles a global investment business that occasionally holds motor races.
Talent matters. Technology matters.
But capital, control and commercial ambition are becoming equally fascinating.
📍 ‘And unlike the racing, the negotiations rarely stop for a weekend.’
