Christian Horner’s leadership remained in doubt on Sunday as a schism at the heart of Red Bull threatened to tear the team apart from within, while persistent criticism from outside the camp only increased pressure on the beleaguered team boss.
Jos Verstappen, Max Verstappen’s father, publicly called for Horner to be removed from his role, warning that Red Bull was “in danger of being torn apart”. Red Bull was then forced to issue a statement denying any issues and claiming that “the team is united and we are focused on racing”. Meanwhile, Horner’s fierce rival, Mercedes’ Toto Wolff, emphatically said he hoped the F1 authorities would “set the compass straight”.
Related: F1 curtain raiser yields mixed results for Christian Horner and Red Bull
Horner may have wished that Red Bull’s dominant start to the season at the Bahrain Grand Prix, with an easy win for Verstappen, would ease the pressure, but that hope was short-lived after the driver’s father chose to speak out.
In a conversation with the Daily Mail, Jos Verstappen publicly stated for the first time that he thought Horner should leave. “There is tension here as he remains in position,” he said. “The team is in danger of being torn apart. It cannot continue as it is. It will explode. He plays the victim, while he is the one causing the problems.”
Verstappen Sr is accused in some quarters of trying to oust Horner from his job. But the 51-year-old father of Red Bull’s three-time world champion said: “That wouldn’t make sense. Why would I do that if Max is doing so well here?”
The controversy surrounding the Red Bull team boss, cleared by an independent investigation into allegations of inappropriate behavior by a female employee but involved in a leaked email exchange containing messages allegedly between him and the complainant, dominated the opening week of the season .
Horner did show solidarity with his wife Geri, who arrived at the circuit hand in hand with her husband on Saturday. The couple are said to have already returned to Britain before Horner flies to Saudi Arabia this week for the second race of the season.
Horner stressed after Saturday’s race that he was confident he would continue to lead the team and that he continues to have the support of Chalerm Yoovidhya, who owns a 51% share in Red Bull GmbH, the team’s parent company. The Thai joined Horner on the grid on Saturday.
Red Bull claims the air has been cleared between the two camps, but Verstappen’s statement was the first public presentation of what is seen as a fundamental rift at the heart of the team, with Jos playing a central role in the career and decision-making of his son. process.
Max Verstappen was notably reluctant to express his full confidence in Horner during the race weekend and when pushed only confirmed that he was fully behind Horner in his role for the team from a ‘performance perspective’. On Saturday, Horner stated that he would not comment on the motives behind the leak, nor on its contents.
In the broader arena, Horner is also facing scrutiny that won’t abate anytime soon. Wolff, the Mercedes team boss who is a staunch supporter of diversity and inclusivity in F1, had already called for the findings of the Horner investigation to be made public and after the race he stressed that the issues at stake are of wider more important than the sport itself or it is just scoring points between rival teams.
“As I continue to wonder how this has been handled, I’m probably not doing the whole thing any good because it could be seen as a power struggle within F1,” he said. “It’s not in the hands of the teams, it’s a much bigger issue. I don’t want to diminish the situation by making it look like the Mercedes or McLaren guy is talking about the Red Bull guy.
“Let’s see how things go in the coming days and I sincerely hope that the governing body, the holder of the commercial rights, sets the compass in the right direction.”
F1 and the FIA, who both held talks with Horner this weekend, are also said to be concerned about the impact the events are having on the sport’s reputation, although neither will comment publicly until they have the results of the investigation seen. Red Bull will not release. The FIA may also still take action under its sporting code, which is specifically aimed at bringing the sport into disrepute.
On track, things went much smoother for Red Bull, with Wolff admitting that Red Bull and Verstappen Jr. find themselves “in another galaxy” after the Dutchman crushed the opposition in the season opener.
The 26-year-old world champion won by 22 seconds ahead of his own Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez, who used an identical machine at the Sakhir circuit. It was a display of complete mastery, with Verstappen leading every lap and riding completely unchallenged at the front once he maintained his lead on pole position into the first corner of the first lap. Closest of the rest of the field was Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who finished third, 25 seconds behind.
Verstappen enjoyed as much as a one-second lead per lap over the rest of the field for large parts of the race, causing the opposition – who had expected the new Red Bull car to be strong – to falter.
“Max is not in a different league, but he is in a different galaxy. The achievement is extraordinary,” said Wolff.
Last season, Red Bull won 21 of the 22 races and Verstappen won 19 of them. Asked whether he believed the three-time defending champion could win every race, Wolff agreed that this was easily conceivable in this way, with the Red Bull proving so dominant.
“Unfortunately, yes,” he said. “[We] I just have to acknowledge that his performance levels are very strong.”
Related: Red Bull provides a boost for beleaguered boss Horner with victory in Bahrain
Lewis Hamilton, in what will be his final season for Mercedes before joining Ferrari in 2025, worked his way from ninth on the grid to seventh, while his teammate George Russell moved from third on the grid to fifth . The Mercedes car is an improvement over the previous two underperforming iterations and the drivers are clearly more confident in it, but there is still some way to go.
Wolff admitted they suffered engine cooling problems that forced them to shut down the engine, costing them power, but still admitted Mercedes had little hope of closing the gap on Red Bull.
“I believe our achievements were masked by our problems,” he said. “Pérez is twenty seconds behind his teammate, so we have hope. That might be the silver lining I can see, but it’s very thin and far away and I can hardly see that far.”