Max Verstappen hasn’t won a race since Barcelona some six Formula One race weekends ago and the margin by which Lando Norris defeated him in Zandvoort sent shockwaves around the paddock.

McLaren now have the quickest car and with both drivers scoring big points regularly, they are rapidly closing down Red Bull in the constructors’ title race. Yet this is not the sum total of Christian Horner’s worries as internal squabbling within the team reignites as Jos Verstappen opens fire on the Red Bull boss.

Early in the season Christian Horner was accused of “inappropriate behaviour” towards a female employee and despite all allegations being dismissed Jos Verstappen chose to publicly tear into Horner demanding he leave his role as team principal.

 

 

 

Horner accusations infuriate Jos

“There is tension here while he remains in position,” Jos Verstappen to The Daily Mail. ”The team is in danger of being torn apart. It can’t go on the way it is. It will explode.”

Jos was suspected of having some involvement in the sending of an anonymous email to around 150 senior paddock individuals which included alleged ‘evidence’ presented to the internal investigation into Horner.

The subsequent uproar included the likes of Zak Brown calling for “transparency” and suggestions were even made that the FIA had a duty to act under the ‘bringing the sport into disrepute’ code of conduct. Yet Horner and Red Bull refused to budge repeating the matter was private and confidential.

The female employee lodged an appear under the Austrian parent companies HR process and during the summer shut down this investigation too completed and again dismissed all allegations against Christian Horner. Jos decided to keep his own counsel upon the announcement but the dismal performance of the RB20 being blown away by Lando Norris appears to stirred Max’s dad up onto his soap box once again.

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“Good people are leaving” Red Bull

“Over 20 seconds is a huge disappointment. Max never had a chance of winning,” Verstappen Snr told German publication Bild. “But that’s not surprising when you regress the car.”

Jos is referring to reports which emerged during the Dutch Grand Prix weekend that Sergio Perez had reverted to older spec parts in an attempt to find his form from the first few races this year. Then came the news that Max Verstappen had reverted to the China spec RB20 which for a team renown for its in season development was a shocking revelation indeed.

To ditch all the design work done since China and start again is highly unusual for a team as well organised as Red Bull and the gap to others who have improved their cars was plain to see when looking at the classified results of the Grand Prix.

“That says it all”, continues Jos. “The team took the wrong turn several times. Internally, we should hold up a mirror to ourselves and not always gloss over everything. It’s time – if it’s not already too late – to question ourselves. The good people are leaving the team. I’m very unhappy with what’s happening.”

Horner breaks silence on accusations against him

 

 

 

Brundle suspects Max chicanery

Of course despite the big announcement that Adrian Newey is leaving Red Bull, others too have been finding roles elsewhere in F1. Trackside engineering boss Jonathan Wheatley recently announced he was leaving Milton Keynes to become Sauber/Audi team principal.

Ironically, Peter Prodromou who was Adrian Newey’s right hand man for 9 years is responsible for this season’s super quick McLaren car. 

The gap between Max and Lando was some 23 seconds at the chequered flag in Zandvort, although Martin Brundle suspects there may have been some Verstappen chicanery going on. 

Meanwhile, Sky F1 commentator Martin Brundle thinks Max Verstappen exaggerated the gap to the McLaren up head in an attempt to give a wake up call for the factory back in Milton Keynes.

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Red Bull revert to old RB20 specification

“I would hazard a guess that that was not as fast as Max could go,” Brundle said. “He knew he couldn’t beat Lando and dropping back a bit like that, it’s going to give the factory a hurry up, isn’t it? I’d be pretty sure of that.”

Even so Jos believes this was no ‘outlier’ circuit. “You can’t sugarcoat it anymore, the situation is serious,” Verstappen said gravely. “Max won’t be happy with having a car like this. Now it’s up to Horner to get the team back on track.”

McLaren have been successful whenever they’ve brought upgrades to the car, the latest coming last time out in the Netherlands. Despite wet and dry conditions together with high fusing wind speed, the correlation between the simulated working of the upgrades and the real life performance was exact with the result demonstrating McLaren’s effectiveness.

Speaking to Dutch publication De Telegraaf, Verstappen said of the team’s experimenting with previous specifications of the RB20, “The fact that you have to go back to the car from the beginning of this year says enough.”

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Max suggests he was coasting

Meanwhile, Max Verstappen in a rare move took to X to respond to some of the hysteria following the size of Lando Norris’ winning margin.

“All those sensational messages like alarm phase 1 at Red Bull because Lando Norris finishes 23 seconds before Max Verstappen,” read the comment.

“There was no need for Max to go all out. Whether you finish 2nd at 4 or at 23 sec, you get the same number of points.”

In an even rarer display of disunity, Verstappen Snr responded:“Then you haven’t understood it yet.”

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Brown predicted “fractures” at Red Bull

Zak Brown has become one of Horner’s most vocal critics over the past two years, writing an open letter to the FIA suggesting Red Bull were ‘cheating’ during the cost cap saga. He was also publicly critical of Horner when in Austria this year following a crash between Lando and Max, the Red Bull boss came on team radio telling his driver it was all Lando’s fault.

In the run up to the Hungarian Grand Prix, Zak Brown made the following prediction. “Winning holds things together and as that becomes more of a challenge for them [Red Bull], I think that’s where you might see some more fractures in various relationships inside that camp.”

It seems rather prophetic now from the McLaren CEO as the Red Bull infighting returns.

Red Bull SHOCKING findings in RB20 development direction

 

 

 

Lando tells journalist “Don’t ask me that again!

Lando Norris cruised to his second victory in Formula One by a stunning 23 seconds ahead of triple world champion Max Verstappen. The British driver had again been slow to start from his pole position and was passed by Verstappen quickly into one of the shortest run downs to a turn one amongst the current F1 venues.

Yet Norris remained patient claiming he expected Max to pull away, but he didn’t. Then on lap 18 the McLaren sailed by the Red Bull down the main straight and was ahead on the exit of turn one.

Coming into his home race weekend, Verstappen had failed to win any of the previous four Grand Prix, yet despite this run of poor results Norris failed to capitalise and with his DNF in Austria it meant he scored seven points less than the world champion…. READ MORE