Manager Christian Horner’s leadership remained in doubt on Sunday, with rifts at Red Bull’s core threatening to tear the team apart from within, while continued criticism from outside camp has led to a crisis. This only added to the pressure on the team principal.
Max Verstappen’s father, Jos Verstappen, warned that Red Bull was “in danger of being torn apart” and publicly called for Horner to be removed from his role. Red Bull was then forced to issue a statement denying any issue, insisting that “the team is united and focused on the race”. Meanwhile, Horner’s fierce rival Mercedes’ Toto Wolff said sharply that he hoped F1 authorities would “set the compass correctly”.
Horner may have been hoping that Red Bull’s dominant start to the season at the Bahrain Grand Prix would ease the pressure with Verstappen’s easy victory, but the driver’s father chose to speak out. Those hopes didn’t last long.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Jos Verstappen publicly declared for the first time that Horner should be sent off. “There is tension here while he remains in that position,” he said. “The team is on the verge of collapse. We can’t continue like this. It’s going to explode. He’s playing the victim when he’s the one causing the problem.”
Verstappen Senior has been accused in some quarters of trying to force Horner out of his job. But the 51-year-old father of Red Bull’s three-time world champion said: Why would I do that when Max is doing so well here? ”
The controversy surrounding the Red Bull team principal, who was exonerated by an independent investigation into allegations of inappropriate behavior by a female employee, was revealed after emails containing messages allegedly exchanged between him and the accuser were revealed. He was involved in leaked communications that covered much of the opening week of the season.
Horner showed solidarity with his wife, Jeri, who arrived at the truck hand in hand with her husband on Saturday. It is thought the couple have already returned to the UK before Horner leaves for Saudi Arabia for the second game of the season this week.
After Saturday’s race, Horner insisted he was confident of continuing to lead the team and is understood to still enjoy the support of Chalerm Juvidya, who owns a 51% stake in the team’s parent company, Red Bull GmbH. There is. The Thai joined Horner’s grid on Saturday.
Red Bull insists the air has been cleared between the two sides, but Verstappen’s statement emphasizes that Jos plays a central role in his son’s career and decision-making, and that there is a fundamental rift at the heart of the team. It was the first public demonstration of what had been recognized. process.
Max Verstappen was particularly reluctant to express full confidence in Horner during the race weekend, but for the first time since being pushed, he has fully supported Horner in his role with the team from a ‘performance’ perspective. This was confirmed. On Saturday, Horner said he would not comment on the motive behind the leak or its content.
On a broader front, Mr. Horner also faces intense scrutiny that won’t subside quickly. Mercedes team principal Wolff, a passionate supporter of diversity and inclusion in F1, has already called for the results of the investigation into Horner to be made public and said after the race that the issues currently at stake are more important. insisted. Whether it’s the sport itself or simply scoring points between rival teams.
“The moment I start to question how this issue has been handled, I’m probably not doing anything to help this whole issue. In that case, it’s just an internal F1 issue. “Because it could be seen as a power struggle,” he said. “It’s not in the teams’ hands, it’s a much bigger theme. I’m not trying to undermine the situation by making it look like Mercedes or McLaren players are talking about Red Bull players.
“We’ll see what happens in the next few days. I really hope that the governing body, the commercial rights holder, sets the right compass.”
Indeed, F1 and the FIA, which held discussions with Mr Horner over the weekend, are also understood to be concerned about the impact the incident will have on the sport’s reputation, although neither will comment publicly until they see the outcome of the investigation. . Red Bull won’t release it. The FIA may still have scope to take action under sporting regulations that specifically deal with bringing the sport into disrepute.
Things were much smoother for Red Bull on track, with Wolff admitting that Red Bull and Verstappen Jr. are “in different galaxies” after the Dutchman crushed his opponent in the opening race.
The 26-year-old world champion won by 22 seconds over his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez in the same car at the Sakhir circuit. It was a testament to complete mastery that Verstappen led every lap and, after holding his pole position lead going into the first corner of the first lap, was completely unstoppable at the front. The closest remaining competitor was Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who finished 25 seconds behind in third place.
Verstappen enjoyed a pace advantage of as much as a second per lap over the rest of the team for large parts of the race, but this still upset his opponents, who had expected the new Red Bull car to be powerful.
“Max isn’t in another league, but he’s in another galaxy. The performance is extraordinary,” Wolff said.
Last season, Red Bull won 21 of 22 races, while Verstappen won 19. Asked if he believed the three-time defending champion could win every race, Wolff said it was easily conceivable in this situation where Red Bull have proven to be so dominant. Agreed.
“Unfortunately, that’s the case,” he said. “[We] I have to admit that his performance level is really strong. ”
Lewis Hamilton, in his final season with Mercedes before joining Ferrari in 2025, fought his way from 9th to 7th on the grid, while teammate George Russell moved from 3rd to 5th. surfaced. The Mercedes car is an improvement over his previous two cars, which underperformed, and the driver clearly has confidence in the car, but it still has a way to go.
Wolff admitted that Mercedes had suffered engine cooling problems that forced them to shut down, sapping power, but he still conceded there was little hope for Mercedes to close the gap to Red Bull.
“I think our performance was overshadowed by our problems,” he said. “Perez is 20 seconds behind his teammate, so we have hope. Maybe that’s the glimmer of hope I see, but it’s so thin and far away that I can barely see it. not.”
