Jos Verstappen has insisted it would be “bad” for Christian Horner to remain as Red Bull team manager, but he expects him to do so “for the rest of the season”.
After a lengthy internal investigation into Horner's alleged actions, Horner's investigation was dismissed last week, but the F1 headlines 10 days later are not satisfactory to Red Bull.
Jos Verstappen believes Christian Horner will stay for now
Horner continues to be heavily criticized over the investigation, particularly after emails were leaked in which he claimed to be keeping information relevant to the investigation, but on Friday night in Saudi Arabia, Red Bull's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko admitted that it was “theoretically possible” that Horner was Horner. Paused.
PlanetF1.com can now confirm that Marko is not an employee of Red Bull Racing and that an internal investigation is underway at Red Bull GmbH, due to various leaks to the media since the start of a separate internal investigation into Christian Horner. I understand.
This includes an investigation into an email leak of information allegedly sent last week to hundreds of F1 executives, including the media, with the aim of humiliating Horner, and an investigation into an email leak of information allegedly sent last week to hundreds of F1 executives, including the media, with Red Bull GmbH This took place just 24 hours after the survey was completed. .
Meanwhile, Verstappen Snr continues to call for Horner's resignation, with his comments casting doubt on his son's future with the Milton Keynes team.
Verstappen Snr insisted it would be “bad” for Red Bull if Horner remained as team principal. But he believes the Englishman will be with the team until the end of the year.
“All these things that are happening are affecting Max,” he told the Daily Mail ahead of the Saudi Grand Prix.
Pointing to his son's performance in Jeddah, where Max took pole position, he added: “All we're hearing is what happened with Horner and his situation.
“Horner's recent press conference was all about him and his problems when it should have been about Max, the car, his performance and the race.
“I've already said, if he stays, I think there will be problems.
“I think it's too late for Christian to say 'leave him alone', but he has the support of the Thai owners so I think he'll stay for the rest of the season.”
“I said it would be bad if he stayed here. It's really not good for the team, it's not good for this whole situation.”
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Asked if it was time to “draw a line under the line” on this situation, as Horner called for in Thursday's press conference, Verstappen Snr replied: “Yes.
“If that's what he wants, that's fine, but I don't think it's possible. I don't want to talk about it anymore because it will cause problems.
“But the most important thing to me is that Max is happy. That's what's important to me. I just want him to be happy.”
The woman who made the complaint against Horner was subsequently suspended by Red Bull.
Asked what he thought about that, Verstappen Sr. replied:
“Red Bull seem to know what they're doing with her, but we'll see. But I think it's for her to go out and see what happens.
“I don't fully understand what's going on with her.”
Meanwhile, Marko's investigation casts further doubt over Max's future with the team, as the Dutchman has given up his support as a motorsport advisor.
“For me, Helmut is a very important element in that respect and definitely he has to stay with me,” he told Sky Sports.
“I've always told the team that, they know it.”
Read next: Max Verstappen: Red Bull knows that if I do, Helmut Marko must stay
