Does Max Verstappen agree with his dad, Jos Verstappen on Horner?

Max Verstappen reacts to Jos' statements

Jos Verstappen made some pointed remarks about Horner during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, stating that the situation at Red Bull would become untenable if the team boss stayed on. Asked if he agreed with those comments, Max replied: "I don't know, because I'm the driver, I don't know what's happening higher up, right? But from my side, I'm contracted to just focus on the performance side of things."

So that is exactly what he plans to do during the F1 weekend in Saudi Arabia. "Ideally what has been said in Bahrain from everyone, basically, is to just leave that behind and hopefully have a bit more of a quieter weekend here," added the three-time world champion.

Asked if he agrees with his father's comment that the team would fall apart if Horner stays on as team boss, Verstappen said the following: "I don't know. I hope not. It shouldn't be. It's a strong company, strong team, a lot of strong team members. Normally not."

Stuck in the middle

As a driver, Verstappen seems to be stuck in the middle. In any case, what does not change is loyalty to his father. "We are a team, you know. It's me, my dad and Raymond all together. And that will always be like that also. I guess he clearly felt like that. But I think from my side, it doesn't matter being on one side or the other side. Of course, as a son of my dad, it would be weird to be on a different side. But from my side, I just want to focus on the performance side of things. I want to have less talk of what we are doing as a team outside of the track than actual."

When asked if he could stay with the team as long as Horner was there, he gave a short but firm answer: "Well, we are at the moment." He won't say more about his team boss's situation. "I saw a lot of stories about that, which is a bit weird to read. But from my side, what I want, and that doesn't matter who is involved in the team or not, is to have a quiet environment where everyone is happy to work."

Above all, Verstappen wants peace and quiet within the team. Can his father and his team boss settle their differences? "I think everyone in general, even if you have arguments or not, there are always things that can be worked out. I think everyone is man enough and respectful enough to each other anyway.  I've also not always agreed with everything that happened. Not talking about lately or whatever. Just in general in F1. And that's why sometimes it's good to have a discussion about things. And then, yeah, you might agree to disagree sometimes. That's also how you have what's happening in a relationship. But it's how it goes," he continued.

Max Verstappen: 'My father is not a liar'

Max did not ask his father whether he regretted his statements. "But my dad is always very outspoken. He's not a liar. That for sure. That is from my side what I can say about things. But I think in general for the team, it's very important, I think, from every side of the team that it's just that we can finally talk about the great car that we actually have, which seems like no one is mentioning that too much in the last few days, unfortunately," Verstappen said.

He is also keeping quiet about the reason behind Jos Verstappen's words. "Well, the only one who knows that is my dad himself, right? You know, the thing is, people will start making up stuff or speculate or they think that they know why he said certain kind of things. But at the end of the day, he's the only one. And yeah, that's what social media is for, right? Also to speculate and make up stuff. And there's not much that I can do with that, to be honest," the championship leader said.