The Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, issued a pointed warning to his world champion driver, Max Verstappen, that no individual is bigger than the team after a weekend at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix when Verstappen had suggested he might leave Red Bull.
After another tumultuous race week had engulfed Red Bull Racing, despite once more being enormously successful on track with Verstappen taking a dominant one-two finish alongside his teammate Sergio Pérez, Horner was at pains to emphasise that he viewed his driver as only one part of the success they are enjoying, potentially calling the Dutchman’s bluff after he had said he would consider his position were Red Bull’s director of motorsport, Helmut Marko, to leave the team.
“Max is an important member of our team and is a valued member of our team,” said Horner after Verstappen’s win in Jeddah. “He’s a wonderful driver, but everybody has a role to play in this team. We are a team and no single individual is bigger than the team, and that’s the only way that you achieve these kinds of results.”
The Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, further ratcheted up the pressure on Red Bull by stating his team would snap Verstappen up were he available to replace Lewis Hamilton, who will join Ferrari in 2025. “I would love to have him,” said Wolff. “It is a decision that Max needs to take and there is no team up and down the grid who wouldn’t do handstands to have him in their car.”
Marko, instrumental in bringing Verstappen to Red Bull, had said on Friday he potentially faced investigation and suspension, believed to be connected to leaks related to the investigation into Horner. Marko stated on Saturday the issue had been cleared up and that he would remain as a consultant to Red Bull but only after Verstappen had very publicly backed him, saying he would consider his future at Red Bull were Marko to leave or be removed, widely perceived as a serious warning to the team.
This flashpoint then has, ostensibly, been defused. However Horner was unwilling to let it pass and repeated his point in relation to the controversy that has surrounded Marko and then Verstappen’s comments over the race weekend.
“We are one team and nobody is bigger than a team,” he said. “This team comprises, across the different entities, over 1,400 people, and everybody has a role to play and that’s from the very bottom to the very top.”
With the spotlight still focused intensely on Red Bull and every comment a politically weighted intercession, Horner’s remarks will not have been made without consideration.
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Verstappen, speaking afterwards, attempted to suggest that the divisions that became painfully clear this weekend, particularly between his father, Jos, and the team principal, were finally able to be put behind them.
“I always said that what is most important is that we work together as a team and that everyone keeps the peace,” he said. “That’s what we all agree on within the team. So hopefully from now on that is also fully the case. Everyone is trying to focus in the same direction. The positive out of all this is that it didn’t hurt our performances. So it’s a very strong team.”