Exclusive
War between Horner and Jos Verstappen continues: What do Red Bull think?
- Ludo van Denderen
For more than 15 minutes, Max Verstappen and his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase were talking prior to the only free practice session in Austria. Sometimes the three-time world champion nodded, sometimes he sipped from his can of Red Bull. What the conversation was about could not be seen from a distance. There, of course, has been plenty to talk about at the Austrian team lately. On Friday morning, another topic could've been added, the argument between Jos Verstappen and Red Bull's team boss Christian Horner.
Jos Verstappen said in De Telegraaf that he had opted out of a demonstration in an old Red Bull F1 car. According to him, Horner 'did everything he could to not let me drive. And to 'otherwise make sure nothing would be filmed'. The former F1 driver also said, 'It doesn't have to be this way for me.'
Horner is definitely not in favour of a Jos Verstappen demo run
There is no denying that within Red Bull Horner wasn't in favour of Jos Verstappen giving a demo on behalf of the team. At the same time, Horner does not have the power to single-handedly remove Verstappen from participating in the demo.
Horner and Verstappen senior haven't clashed for quite some time. This first became clear after the so-called Horner affair, in which the team boss was accused of cross-border behaviour by an employee. Jos Verstappen was very outspoken about this and thought Horner should step down. The team boss did not and was cleared of any wrongdoing after an internal investigation.
What does this mean for Max Verstappen?
The breach of trust between Verstappen and Horner had already been irreparably damaged. For weeks afterwards, at least to the outside world, things were quiet. But in Spielberg for the Austrian Grand Prix, and thus Red Bull Racing's home race, there was more tension between Verstappen senior and Horner.
Everyone is now holding their breath in Austria: what will happen next? Might this next incident have implications for Max's future in the team?