Max Verstappen points to management call in cold reaction to Christian Horner being fired by Red Bull

Max Verstappen has claimed that it was a management call that led to Christian Horner being fired by Red Bull in a pretty cold reaction to the development. The Dutch driver joined the team in 2016 when Horner was at the helm. The driver has gone through his entire career progression, which has seen him develop into an elite driver.

During all of this, Christian Horner was the team principal at Red Bull and spearheaded the team's revival after what had been a blip in the turbo-hybrid era. With Horner at the helm, defending his driver through thick and thin in his first title battle in 2021, Max Verstappen picked up his first title.

Since then, the Dutch driver has been unbeaten and has racked up 4 consecutive titles. Red Bull's relationship with Max Verstappen peaked in 2023 when the team won all but one race in the year. The mid-2024 decline and the political drama in the background led to the Milton Keynes squad falling down the order.

As a result, at best, Max Verstappen is currently an outside contender in the 2025 F1 championship battle. It does appear that Red Bull infighting has had another victim, however, and that one is Christian Horner. The Dutch driver's first reaction to the media came on the eve of the F1 Belgian GP weekend, where he put the sacking down to the management taking a call. The driver told the media, including Motorsport:

"Sitting here, you look back at those 20 years of Red Bull, I think we've had a lot of great, great years, great results. Next to that of course, are also years where it's not going that well, and I think the last 1.5 years have not gone how we would have liked."

He added:

"Management decided they wanted to see the shift in a different direction, probably, and then everyone else has to anyway agree to that. I look forward [to it] and I am looking forward. I had already quite a few meetings with Laurent [Mekies] as well, the last two weeks have been quite intense for him to jump in."

Max Verstappen looking forward to the next phase

The driver was, however, excited to look forward to the next phase of Red Bull with Laurent Mekies in charge. Mekies has only had a couple of weeks at the job, and this would be his first race with the team. Max Verstappen admitted he was looking forward to the future under new leadership, as he said:

"I'm equally also excited, you know, for, for the team now moving forward because that's what we have to do. Looking back, it doesn't make sense. It's not going to make you faster, but at the same time, you do appreciate those 20 years."

He added:

"I don't think it will matter at all for my decision in in the future, and the only thing that matters is that we work on the car and make it as fast as we can make it really, and like I said, the last 1.5 years have not been, what we want to be. Now we try and be more competitive this year a little bit, but for sure also with the new regulations."

Max Verstappen was notably willing to put himself on the line when Helmut Marko's position at Red Bull was at stake last season. The driver just using the management's call as something he was fine with when Christian Horner was fired, does shed light on the relative relationship he had with both parties.