Max Verstappen is allegedly considering leaving Red Bull Racing due to the continuing Christian Horner issue.
According to The Telegraph, Jos Verstappen, the three-time World Champion driver’s father, has warned pals that Max will leave the Formula One team if Horner remains in control.
Horner, Red Bull’s racing leader since its formation in 2005, was recently cleared in an internal workplace misconduct probe into “coercive behaviour” — only to have hundreds of text conversations and images between him and a female colleague released shortly after.
Horner is married to Geri Halliwell, a former Spice Girl.
Last week, leaders in and around Formula One apparently received 79 screenshots of communication between Horner and an unidentified employee via anonymous email.
The contents are unknown, despite Horner’s claim that he “fully cooperated.”
Jos Verstappen has urged for Horner to resign down. The two reportedly had a nasty argument last week.
“There is tension here while he (Horner) remains in position,” Jos previously told the Daily Mail following his son’s victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix. ‘The team is in risk of breaking apart. It cannot continue the way it is. It will detonate. He is acting like a victim yet he is the one causing the difficulties.”
Jos Verstappen denied being involved in the email leak, noting his son’s success with Red Bull and claiming no incentive to interfere.
Verstappen would face a double whammy if he departed Red Bull for Mercedes.
Jos Verstappen and Mercedes-AMG Petronas team CEO Toto Wolff were seen together several times during the season-opening race last week and slept at the same hotel, according to The Telegraph.
If the interactions are a flirtation that leads to a partnership, they are not concealing the wooing well, if at all.
Wolff downplayed—but did not rule out—the prospect of adding Max Verstappen to his roster following Sunday’s race.
“I think the driver will always choose the quickest car,” Wolff told reporters. “That is essentially what it is all about. At the present, the Red Bull is the fastest car, and that will always be my top objective.”
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