Cape Argus

Verstappen wants more focus on his car, not Red Bull drama

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FORMULA One world champion Max Verstappen has backed Red Bull’s handling of a complaint against boss Christian Horner and said the saga has had no impact on how he feels racing for the team.

Verstappen started the season by winning both races so far, but those victories in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have been overshadow­ed by unspecifie­d allegation­s of misconduct against Horner by a woman employee at Red Bull.

Horner, who has denied the accusation­s, was cleared of misconduct but the unidentifi­ed woman lodged an appeal after her complaint was dismissed, British media reported last week, ensuring the controvers­y has continued to rumble on in the lead-up to Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix.

Verstappen said he did not want to be too involved in off-track issues because his role was to worry about performing in the car.

“But from what I know everything is handled in the right way,” the Dutchman told reporters in the Albert Park paddock yesterday.

“I’m not going into any further details from that side because I don’t know more than that. And I also don’t want to know, because that’s not my job or my task within the team.”

Red Bull GmbH, the Formula One champions’ Austria-based parent company, has not commented on the reports but said before the season that the accuser had a right of appeal.

Verstappen, who has won the last three world championsh­ips with Red Bull, said the internal strife had no impact on his performanc­e or comfort within the team, though he hoped attention could turn back to their race results.

“For me, all the things that have been going on, it’s very easy to jump back in the car and perform,” he said.

“There are so many great people also in the garage, for example. That has never changed ... as you can see (from) results that we’ve had as a team.

“Would we have liked to have more talk about our car? Probably, yes.

“But we just try to keep on working on the performanc­e and to keep winning.”

Verstappen’s father Jos, a past F1 driver, said after Bahrain that Red Bull risked being torn apart if Horner stayed in charge.

Those comments triggered fears Verstappen may look elsewhere from 2025 despite his contract running until 2028.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said he would love to have Verstappen on his team, with Lewis Hamilton departing for Ferrari next season.

Verstappen did not rule out a move to Mercedes in the long term, but said he was comfortabl­e at his “second family” Red Bull – and that it would be a great story for him to finish his F1 career with them.

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