Red Bull’s superstar driver Max Verstappen stopped short of providing his full support for embattled team principal Christian Horner.
Verstappen temporarily took the spotlight off Horner – whose Formula One future is again in the spotlight after hundreds of WhatsApp messages appearing to be written by him to a female colleague were leaked – when the Dutchman secured pole position for Saturday’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
But moments after capturing top spot, Verstappen was quizzed on how the latest allegations surrounding Red Bull had affected his preparations, and if Horner remains the right person to lead the crisis-hit team.
“From my side, and, from the mechanics and engineers, we’re fully focused on the car, and fully focused on the weekend which is how it should be and that is what we continue to do,” said Verstappen.
Appearing to swerve the question about Horner, he added: “It’s not our business to get involved in that. We are paid to do our job, that is what we are out there doing, and that is what we love doing and that is what I focus on.”
Verstappen was asked again if he still had faith in Horner.
“When I look at how Christian operates within the team he has been an incredible boss so from the performance kind of things you can’t question that,” he added.
It’s not our business to get involved in that. We are paid to do our job, that is what we are out there doing.
Max Verstappen
“I speak to Christian a lot and he is fully committed to the team.
“He is here for the performance, and of course he is a little bit distracted, but we just focus on performance and that is how we all work together.”
On Wednesday, Horner was cleared to continue as Red Bull team principal following an internal probe into “inappropriate behaviour” by the F1 team’s parent company, Red Bull GmbH. He has always denied the claims.
But just 24 hours later, a number of messages and images apparently exchanged between Horner and the complainant were sent from an anonymous email account to 149 members of the F1 paddock – including FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem, F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali and the grid’s nine other team principals, as well as members of the media.