Click here<\/a> <\/p>\n\u201cI was swimming in the ocean at the time,\u201d Verstappen said. \u201cI don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t really care about these things.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went on holiday with my friends, my family. And when other people are there at the same time, that can happen. There are more people on the island than just me and Toto and the family.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go to the same island, that can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verstappen also addressed the exit of Horner, who was dismissed by Red Bull two weeks ago in a shock management shake-up that ended his two-decade reign as team principal.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the decision could affect his own plans, Verstappen was firm.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, it doesn\u2019t really,\u201d he said. \u201cI think people can have a difference of opinion here and then. And I actually expect that to happen because if everyone always agrees, there is a problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to have difference of opinions. And yeah, that\u2019s now something that we work with in a different direction. I\u2019m excited about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it will matter at all for my decision in the future. And yet, the only thing that matters is that we work on the car and make it as fast as we can make it, really.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd like I said, the last one and a half 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verstappen said he was informed of Horner\u2019s sacking a day before it became public, having maintained a strong relationship with Red Bull\u2019s shareholders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a good relationship with them, you know, so I think it\u2019s quite normal that they inform some people in the team before it goes out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a standard practice. I gave them my opinion. And I keep that to myself. And if they want to say more about it, they will do. And you will hear about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also confirmed he had spoken to Horner since his departure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spoken to Christian. I spoke to him even today,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that sense, the relationship will never change. We\u2019ve experienced so many things together in the team, and of course, great, emotional moments. From my side, the team feels like a second family, and Christian is included in that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just incredibly thankful for all of the moments that we have lived together and there is a time that someone leaves a team, whether that is Christian or me, that happens. It\u2019s what happens in sport. No one is there forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, it happened at a time when a lot of people didn\u2019t expect it. But at the end of the day, I\u2019m the driver and the management made a decision, and you have to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verstappen currently sits third in the drivers\u2019 championship, 69 points behind leader Oscar Piastri.<\/p>\n
2025 F1 Belgian Grand Prix \u2013 Schedule, how to watch, TV times & more<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen has laughed off continued rumours of him going to Mercedes next year. Image: XPB Images The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,1199,817,813,816,825,918,9910,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-20010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-christian-horner","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-max-verstappen","15":"tag-red-bull","16":"tag-slot2","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Verstappen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/XPB_1361321_HiRes.jpg\")
Max Verstappen has laughed off continued rumours of him going to Mercedes next year. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n