00:09Red Bull Racing Team Principal Leron Meckes says the top squad is not holding retirement talks with Max Verstappen with
00:17its efforts focused on tweaking the regulations to bring the cars back to the drivers.
00:25Verstappen has been an outspoken critic of the sports regulation change calling current cars anti-racing but things ramped up
00:33in Japan where he stated he's not enjoying the whole formula behind the sport and that he has things to
00:38figure out regarding his future.
00:42Meckes though speaking with F1's official podcast Beyond the Grid says he's got full confidence that Verstappen will commit if
00:49the sport works to make qualifying flat out again while retaining the close racing.
00:58If we do that I have every confidence that Max will keep seeing what we all see is that you
01:05still have the best 22 drivers in the world there, you'll have the fastest car on the planet and he's
01:11the most competitive environment and he's ultimately a competitor.
01:19Daniel Ricciardo says he's grateful that Red Bull took the decision to drop him from its Racing Bulls team following
01:25the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix as he was struggling to admit he was done.
01:32Ricciardo was axed mid-season after he failed to consistently take the fight to his then-teammate Yuki Tsunoda across
01:392024's first 18 races.
01:42But in a new chat with Ford's CEO Jim Farley on his podcast Drive, the Australian has revealed he was
01:48already considering the inevitable.
01:51I think it would have been hard to be like, I'm done, because not so much for me, I think
01:58I knew I was probably done, because I knew that it was harder for me to perform at the level
02:02I could.
02:03Yeah.
02:04Whatever happens, you know, like, okay, Alonso, these guys are still, they're in their 40s in F1 competing very highly.
02:10Yeah.
02:11For whatever reason, I lost a little bit of something and it's okay to admit it, it's fine.
02:20Alpine says suggestions online from Argentinian fans that it sabotaged Franco Colopinto's results in China last month by giving him
02:28an inferior car are unfounded.
02:33Colopinto scored his first point for Endstone in Shanghai after he finished 10th, but he was four places and 49
02:40seconds behind Gasly, which fans suggested was due to a difference in their cars.
02:46But Alpine, in an open letter to fans, said barring some small low performance impacting parts in China due to
02:54switching gearbox components, the two drivers have been running the same equipment, though the squad was firm in its need
03:01for flexibility with parts.
03:05There might be times this year when pushing in the development race that upgrades come to one car first, which
03:11the team will communicate and be completely transparent about, Alpine wrote.
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