‘now news: I would rather not have these stories’: Max Verstappen on Christian Horner, his dad and staying at Red Bull
The world champion speaks on dealing with Red Bull’s internal strife, learning from mistakes and focusing on performance
Max Verstappen takes a breath, gathering his thoughts, the usually ebullient and unpredictable driver for once appearing stilted. It is almost as if he is assessing the parameters of what he can and cannot say, knowing his words carry more scrutiny than ever this season.
“The more I talk about it, the more people have to write,” he says, almost apologetically. “You write it down, you make a story out of it and people will pick up little things and it becomes a massive shit storm. You know what I mean? I tell you a story that might get translated to Spanish, Dutch, whatever. The more I say about it is not going to help the situation
The Formula One world champion is referring, of course, to the turmoil that has engulfed him, his Red Bull team and its principal, Christian Horner, this season. Intriguingly even this tiny admission of frustration feels as if Verstappen has gone off piste from the line he and the team have followed since the tumult surrounding Horner began.
For months it has dominated the sport, eclipsing Verstappen’s formidable command on track. It emerged in February that Horner was accused of inappropriate behaviour by a female employee, an allegation he has always denied. A grievance procedure was dismissed by an independent inquiry. She has also submitted a complaint to the F1’s governing body, the FIA.
Sitting in the team’s motorhome, Verstappen is outwardly as affable and relaxed as ever. The 26-year-old views the associated hoopla around F1 – the TV, the media, meeting the sponsors – as a necessary evil in allowing him to do what he loves, which is going racing. He is rarely churlish in carrying out these duties, even this year with the inevitable focus on the goings-on at the team, but he concedes the furore around Horner has not been to his liking.
“I would rather not have these stories, these things going on within the team,” he says. “We just have to deal with it and move on from it. I am contracted to the team to do my job, that’s performance, that’s what I am focused on. I am not a politician, I am not someone who likes to be political. I just focus on the performance with the people around me, try to distract myself from, let’s say, the negative.”
