Max Verstappen did not fully endorse his father’s recent comments about Christian Horner and Red Bull, but says he can never rule out a future move to Mercedes, amid ongoing turmoil within his current team.
Jos Verstappen called for Horner to be removed as team principal earlier this week following a recent investigation into his behavior, claiming the team “will explode” if Horner remains in his role. When the comments were put to the triple world champion, Verstappen appeared to disagree with them but also hinted he tends to side with his father’s views.
“I don’t know (if the team will explode). I hope not!” Verstappen said. “It shouldn’t be. It’s a strong company, it’s a strong team, a lot of strong team members, so normally not.
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“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 just want to have less talk of what we are doing as a team outside of the track than the actual performance, which at the moment I think is, again, we have a great car, and we are looking forward to a great year.”
Jos is not attending the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend but the younger Verstappen says he believes the situation can be resolved between his father and Horner.
“I was with him until yesterday, so this morning, basically. I mean, we speak all the time, we’re a team. It’s me, my dad and Raymond [Vermeulen, manager] altogether. And that will always be like that, too.
“I saw a lot of stories about (one of Horner or Verstappen having to go), which is, yeah, a bit weird to read. But from my side, what I want, and it doesn’t matter who is involved in the team or not, is to have a quiet environment where everyone is happy to work.
“Anyone in general, even if you have arguments or not, there’s always things that can be worked out. Everyone is man enough and respectful enough to each other anyway in that sense.
“I’ve also not agreed with everything that happened — not talking about lately or whatever, just in general in F1, with everything — and that’s why sometimes it’s good to have a discussion about things. You might agree to disagree sometimes. That’s what happens in a relationship, that’s how it goes.”
While Verstappen is under contract at Red Bull until 2028, the current situation has led to him being linked with the upcoming vacancy at Mercedes. The 26-year-old says his intention is to see out his Red Bull deal, but won’t rule out that position changing in future.
“Well the thing is, no one would ever have realized or seen that Lewis [Hamilton] would move to Ferrari. In my life, that’s not related to F1 or whatever, it’s just general life, you never know what happens or what comes to you or whatever happens around you, or what might influence you,” he said.
“So you can never say 100% that’s how it’s going to be. I approach my life like that, but I also don’t think about it that much. I’m very relaxed, I’m very happy at the team. The performance is there, there is no reason to leave.”