Christian Horner has responded to Jos Verstappen’s statements that Red Bull Racing is in danger of drifting apart if the Brit remains as team boss. According to Horner, the air has now cleared with Verstappen senior, and the most important thing for both men is that Max Verstappen gets the best material to continue his winning streak. The Brit now really hopes to put an end to the turbulent period.
Jos Verstappen told De Telegraaf last week that he was afraid that the Red Bull team would fall apart if Horner was allowed to remain as team boss. “This situation is definitely not good and it is driving people apart,” said Verstappen senior. ‘It cannot continue like this. This keeps a lot of tension in the air.’ The Red Bull team boss responded for the first time to the statements made by the father of the three-time world champion, and the claim made by Lewis Hamilton, among others, that Verstappen senior is not part of the Red Bull team at all.
“Of course Max’s father played a key role in his career and in getting him to Formula 1,” the Red Bull team boss responded to the Jos Verstappen issue during the press conference for the team bosses. ‘But of course Jos is his own man. Max is also his own man. And we’ve watched him grow from a teenager when he came to us to now, a very young man, who has achieved what he has achieved. So it is not for me to comment on the relationships between fathers and drivers. They are all unique among different individuals.”
According to Horner, the air between himself and Verstappen senior has also been cleared, and he would like to focus again on the most important thing in Formula 1: racing. “I spoke to Jos after the Grand Prix (of Bahrain, ed.) and of course congratulated him on his son’s performance,” says the 50-year-old Briton. ‘And I think it is in everyone’s interest that we have agreed to move on and focus on the future. We both have an interest in his son getting the best cars and getting the most out of them. He started the season in the best possible way. He is a great talent and hopefully we can continue to offer him a very competitive car.”
Horner: ‘It is now time to look ahead’
The questions about Verstappen senior were not the only questions addressed to Horner during the press conference, and the other three team bosses hardly had a say. The Red Bull team boss was also asked what he thinks of all the attention that is currently being focused on him. ‘I think a lot has been made of this (the Red Bull study, ed.). Obviously a lot of attention has been paid to it by different parts of the media for different reasons,” said Horner, who hopes that this can now finally be put to rest. ‘It is now time to look ahead and draw a line under it. We are here to race. We are here as a Formula 1 team. And now it’s time to focus on what’s happening on the track and the performance of the cars and the drivers and where the spotlight is on.”
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