Christian Horner's shocking revelation of Max Verstappen's gesture to Red Bull after F1 Spanish GP

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has revealed that Max Verstappen apologized to the team after the F1 Spanish GP. The race was one of the more forgettable ones for the Dutch driver, as he ended up finishing in P10. Part of the reason behind such a drastic drop was the controversial incident he had with George Russell.

Verstappen was on the back foot in the later stage of the F1 Spanish GP, and it was during this time that he was told that he had to give up the position to Russell. In a movement that proved to be the trigger, the Dutchman ended up ramming into the side of the Mercedes driver.

The driver was hence given a 10-second penalty and 3 F1 penalty points even though Nico Rosberg, in commentary, advocated for worse. It did appear that Max Verstappen had realized he was in the wrong, as he admitted in his social media post that what happened was not right.

Talking to Sky Sports ahead of the F1 Canadian GP race weekend, Christian Horner revealed that the Dutch driver had apologized to the Red Bull team after the event. He said:

“It happened in the debrief. Obviously it was a very frustrating race for him and of course for the team. It was one of those things, he accepted that with hindsight I’m sure he wouldn’t have done it, but there was a whole bunch of circumstances that led up to it."

He added:

“You always talk about these things in private and Max apologised to the team. He knows that the penalty that went with that was severe, and you’re always learning in this life and there will be lessons taken from that race for sure.”

Max Verstappen compared to Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna

Coming out in defense of his driver, Christian Horner compared Max Verstappen to Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna in terms of the personalities that wore their hearts on their sleeves while racing. The two F1 legends were also susceptible to a few contentious moments in their careers as well. Talking about the Dutch driver, he said:

“Look, he’s a driver that drives with a huge amount of emotion, and part of what gives him the brilliance he has is the emotion that he drives with. He wears his heart on his sleeve and occasionally you make misjudgements – we’ve seen it with all the greats, whether it was [Ayrton] Senna or [Michael] Schumacher, all the great champions over the years."

He added:

“I think the most important thing was he came back, he immediately apologized to the team, and it was frustrating because obviously he lost a lot of points on that day.”

For Max Verstappen to admit his mistake not only in front of the media and the team is a shocking revelation, as the driver is not known to often acknowledge if he goes wrong in some way or the other.