Four-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen says he has been in contact with ex-Red Bull team boss Christian Horner \u201cevery race\u201d since his sacking.<\/p>\n
Horner had been at the helm of the Red Bull<\/a> team since its debut in F1 in 2005, and helped navigate it to four world titles with Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, allegations of inappropriate behaviour – which he was later cleared of – in 2024 saw the atmosphere within Red Bull sour, with tensions building over the following year.<\/p>\n As Red Bull slipped down the competitive order, Horner was relieved of his duties in July, with Laurent Mekies replacing him as team principal.<\/p>\n Verstappen ultimately came just two points short of winning a fifth world title in 2025, with Red Bull third in the constructors\u2019 standings behind Mercedes and McLaren.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Horner \u201cwent through fire\u201d for Verstappen<\/p>\n Speaking with Viaplay, Verstappen revealed that he remains in constant contact with Horner.<\/p>\n “Things weren’t going very well for the whole team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of results, there was a bit of unrest in the team, and when things haven’t been going well for a long time\u2026 in the end, the shareholders also wanted change because they weren’t happy with how things were going either.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, it’s always difficult. You’ve built up a bond with Christian and achieved so much – especially in 2021, those moments too.<\/p>\n \u201cYou’ll never forget that. Christian really went through fire for me. Those kinds of things are always difficult when you talk to each other on the phone.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201c[I speak with him] every week, every race. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday and usually via text message. But also on holiday, for example. Every week.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, he knows everyone in the team, but it’s more about \u2018I wish you good luck\u2019 and ‘I believe in you\u2019 – biggest fan.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we’ve all been through. But also, \u2018you know you can do it\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, all that kind of stuff and outside of that, of course, you talk about things other than racing, too. Yes, every week. Every race weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen says he has been in contact with ex-Red Bull team boss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,825,946,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-387221","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-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-max-verstappen","14":"tag-red-bull-racing","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387221","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=387221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}