Lewis stirs pot by hinting at Max move to Mercedes
IF it was a question of whether Max Verstappen would back his boss or his dad, there was only going to be one answer. His dad. The triple world champion knew what was coming in the Jeddah paddock. What did he make of his father Jos’s remarks that the Red Bull team will ‘explode’ unless Christian Horner quits as team principal?
It didn’t require Lewis Hamilton, next door, to put a match to the gas by saying his old nemesis was on Mercedes’ list of replacements for him, a transfer that would only happen if, as Jos suggests, Horner stays or the world championship team are blown apart. But Hamilton did say it.
A few minutes after Lewis had spoken, Max took his seat in an unusually busy press conference at the team hospitality area, and then inhaled deeply, before laying out his considered response. It should be noted that he didn’t mention the words ‘Christian’ or ‘Horner’ once in the nine minutes of interviewing.
The most striking line was his insistence that his father ‘isn’t a liar’. Which suggested he thinks Jos’s description, from Saturday, of the tumult at Red Bull is true. It also, presumably, means he agrees with his old man’s wider assessment that: ‘There is tension here while he remains in position. The team is in danger of being torn apart. It can’t go on the way it is.
‘Horner is playing the victim, when he is the one causing the problems.’
Max is typically less vocal than his father, but he is not a man to back down when he feels affronted. Four times in Bahrain last week, Max was asked if he would give unequivocal backing to Horner; four times he declined.
And yesterday, asked if he could stay at Red Bull with Horner in post, Verstappen merely said: ‘Well, we are at the moment. What I want, and it doesn’t matter who is involved in the team, is to have a quiet environment where everyone is happy to work.’
In contrast he said of his father and manager Raymond Vermeulen: ‘I don’t see myself in F1 without them.’
From my understanding the nub of the issue is this: Max backs Jos; Max wants calm; Jos respects that; Jos still hates Christian. Which of those sentiments wins out may yet shape Horner’s fate in the longer term.
But barring a startling new piece of evidence emerging Horner is likely to remain in post for now, having been cleared by an internal inquiry of ‘coercive behaviour’ towards a female colleague. That despite purportedly sexually suggestive WhatsApp messages.
Horner — now seemingly better known as ‘Geri’s husband’, as the headline writers have it — has his right of reply in a press conference here today.
The most positive interpretation Horner can make of Verstappen Jnr’s comments is that he is showing public support to his father and mentor, not wishing to betray him, yet privately wants a line drawn under the imbroglio.
As for a possible move to Mercedes, it is the nuclear option. It is certainly a powerful bargaining chip, meanwhile, for the Verstappen camp.
Max is signed up until 2028, but there are escape clauses that might allow him to move earlier. One is if his ally Dr Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s motorsports adviser, were to leave the team. Marko was at Jos’s 52nd birthday celebration in Dubai on Monday. Horner, despite being in the emirate, was not invited.
Fuel was added to the Mercedes link when Jos met with team principal Toto Wolff in Bahrain last week.
Asked about the possibility of transferring down the pit lane, Max said: ‘Nobody would have seen Lewis moving to Ferrari. You never know in life what happens, or comes to you, or happens around you, or what might influence you, so you can never say 100 per cent that that is how it is going to be, and that is the way I approach my life.
‘I am very relaxed and very happy at the team and the performance is there so there is no reason to leave.’
As for Hamilton, he knows what it is to have an active father in your racing career. Anthony was his manager before they fell out and took years to rebuild what had been broken.
‘He (Jos) is not a part of the team,’ said the seven-time world champion. ‘He is a parent, so it is definitely not helpful.
‘It is a very thin line to walk. It is also dependent on your relationship with your parent.
‘I don’t know about his relationship. You hear things here and there. But Max is a grown man and a champion and he can make his own decisions.’