Cracks within the Red Bull team opened up when Christian Horner was put under investigation for an “inappropriate behavior” charge against him earlier this year. Max Verstappen’s father, Jos was one of the most open critics of the Red Bull team principal and CEO.
Now, despite leading the #1 driver to his fourth consecutive world championship title, the former Arrows and Benetton driver is yet to drop his arms against Horner as he goes on another tirade against the Red Bull boss.
Speaking about the performance dip this season for the Bulls, Verstappen Sr. aimed a thinly veiled jibe at Horner in his interview with Formule1.nl. “Things just happened where you could see that it was going in the wrong direction in terms of performance,” he said referring to the Briton.
“And then it was sometimes quite difficult not to pick up the phone and call that person. So yes, it was absolutely difficult to deal with everything at times.”
Max Verstappen has been unanimously voted as the Driver of the Year by all team principals
For the first time in the seven years since they’ve done this ranking, a driver has received the maximum number of points. pic.twitter.com/hRvHALGu4O
— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) December 21, 2024
In the months after the allegations against Horner were made by a former employee of the team, an independent lawyer cleared the Briton after an investigation. However, Jos Verstappen did not let that go, as he blamed him for making the team implode.
Nevertheless, the 52-year-old’s son kept his focus on his track performance and overcame a troublesome period of fierce competition to clinch his fourth consecutive title.
Max Verstappen came out as a stronger driver for Red Bull in 2024
While things were getting nastier off the track, on the track, the 27-year-old had to dig deeper than before to retain his world title. Even with the likes of McLaren and Ferrari catching up, the Dutchman kept a cool head and finally sealed his fourth title at the Las Vegas GP.
Jos, however, doesn’t think it led to Max particularly learning anything new about himself. Rather, it was a trial by fire that made him a more rounded F1 driver at the end of the day.
“The weekends were of course also harder for him, especially compared to an extremely successful year like 2023. Both on and off the track it was a tough year. And an educational year? You just see a lot of things going wrong. Is that educational? Mwah, not like that for us,” concluded Jos.
On the matter of Verstappen Sr. firing shots at Horner, it was being suggested that he wanted the Briton out of the Red Bull hot seat. Many rumors suggested that he wanted that role for himself, but after Verstappen’s title win it would appear that Horner has saved his seat for the time being.
