{"id":796448,"date":"2026-07-13T00:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T00:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796448\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T00:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T00:07:14","slug":"max-verstappen-speaks-out-on-christian-horners-f1-paddock-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796448\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen speaks out on Christian Horner’s F1 paddock return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> has revealed he speaks to former Red Bull Formula 1<\/a> CEO and Team Principal Christian Horner \u201calmost every week\u201d.<\/p>\n

Horner had lead the Milton-Keynes-based squad to eight Drivers\u2019 and six Constructors\u2019 titles during his 20-year tenure at the team. <\/p>\n

Four out of those titles came with Verstappen, between 2021 and 2024. But since then, Red Bull\u2019s form had deteriorated, eventually leading to a falling out between Horner and the upper echelons of Red Bull\u2019s management. <\/p>\n

This culminated with the Briton\u2019 sacking, as CEO and Team Principal, after the British GP, last year. <\/p>\n

12 months on, with Horner still looking for a permanent way back into the paddock, he made a return cameo at Silverstone. <\/p>\n

At the time of Horner\u2019s departure, a lot of speculation was surrounding the role Verstappen, and his father Jos had had in orchestrating the Briton\u2019s removal. <\/p>\n

But the 28-year-old revealed something completely contrary to the speculative record. <\/p>\n

\u201cI speak to Christian almost every week,\u201d he told media including Motorsport Week when asked if he had spoken to Horner in the paddock at Silverstone. <\/p>\n

\u201cI saw him on the camera walking around, but I haven\u2019t had time to meet anyone to be honest. It\u2019s been busy.\u201d<\/p>\n

When prodded if he had been discussing something in particular with Horner, Verstappen simply replied, \u201cLike you do with your friends or people that you\u2019ve known for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe wreckage of Max Verstappen\u2019s Red Bull was towed away after the British GP<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen opens up on \u201cpainful\u201d 12 months after Horner\u2019s Red Bull F1 departure<\/p>\n

Hot on the heels of Horner\u2019s ousting, Red Bull GmbH promoted Laurent Mekies as the CEO and Team Principal of the main team, after a year of service leading Racing Bulls in 2024 for the Frenchman. <\/p>\n

And immediately after his arrival, the team did see an uptick in performance. <\/p>\n

Verstappen launched an audacious bid to reclaim his F1 title, with a 100+ points deficit to Lando Norris, after the Dutch GP, reduced to just two points after the chequered flag fell at the Abu Dhabi GP.<\/p>\n

But Red Bull\u2019s first season as a works outfit, with a RBPT-Ford power unit collaboration, has turned out to be a pretty underwhelming reality for the Dutchman. <\/p>\n

Heading into the Belgian GP<\/a> weekend, the race where Mekies succeeded Horner at Red Bull last year, Verstappen is a staggering 103 points off of championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli, in seventh.<\/p>\n

Looking back on these 12 months, Verstappen conceded that it has been \u201cpainful\u201d but erred on the side of caution before pinning the blame solely on Mekies. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is trying their best. I\u2019m not blaming one person or whatever. It\u2019s just painful for everyone that this is happening,\u201d Verstappen explained. <\/p>\n

At Silverstone, Verstappen suffered his second rear-wing related incident<\/a>, after his Q1 crash at Austria, DNFing out of P3 with only a handful of laps remaining. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Mekies] came straight in my room, of course, to discuss the problems that we had in the race, to let me know what happened out there,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s normal. We always do that, good or bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Horner\u2019s F1 return imminent, the last couple of race weekends has also exposed the fragility of the relationship between Verstappen and Red Bull, with the four-time F1 Champion reportedly on his way out at the end of 2026. <\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 Ex-F1 star proclaims Max Verstappen and Red Bull on the brink of divorce<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen has revealed he speaks to former Red Bull Formula 1 CEO and Team Principal Christian Horner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,71584,15196,85],"class_list":["post-796448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-horner","tag-redbull","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796448","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=796448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}