Jos Verstappen has given his reaction to a number of key Red Bull personnel leaving the team in recent months, insisting: “This is what I warned about.”
Jos, father of Red Bull’s three-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen, has been embroiled in a feud with Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner for most of the 2024 season.
The division within the team, with Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko supporting Verstappen Snr., was unearthed at the first race of the season in Bahrain in March amid the investigation surrounding Horner’s alleged “inappropriate behaviour” towards a female colleague. Horner was cleared, twice, of any wrongdoing.
Verstappen Snr. stated at the time that Red Bull – who won 21 out of 22 races last year in the most dominant season in F1 history – would “explode” if Horner remained in charge and the recent departures of design guru Adrian Newey, sporting director Jonathan Wheatley and strategy chief Will Courtenay back up Verstappen’s belief.
Verstappen added in March: “It can’t go on the way it is. There is tension here while he remains in position.”
Now, speaking after the key departures and with McLaren’s Lando Norris chasing down son Max in the world championship in a quicker car, Verstappen insists “too many people’ are now leaving the team.
“Yes, this is what I warned about,” he told Motorsport.com.
“The team then says ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter, we have someone else.’ But it’s too many people now [leaving].
“Max gets questions about it every time and so on. So yeah, I think it’s just not good, what’s happening at the moment.
“He [Horner] always glosses over it.”
Red Bull have responded to the outgoings by restructuring their technical department, with Max’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase promoted as part of the reshuffle.
McLaren have now overtaken Red Bull at the top of the constructors’ standings while Norris trails Verstappen – who is winless in eight races – by 52 points with six races left.
