Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says he is “confident” that Max Verstappen will honor his contract with Red Bull, following speculation that he is linking up with Mercedes. Ta.
The latest F1 'stupid season' has started early with the shock announcement that Lewis Hamilton will move to Ferrari in 2025. Following the recent turmoil at Red Bull, there has been talk of Verstappen replacing the seven-time world champion. champion.
Christian Horner 'certain' Max Verstappen stays at Red Bull
After Verstappen's father Jos gave a surprise order for Horner to leave Red Bull, there was speculation that Verstappen was headed for the Red Bull exit, with Mercedes poised to capitalize on the apparent off-track tension.
Red Bull senior adviser Helmut Marko could not deny that Jos had held talks with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, but Horner remains with Red Bull until the end of 2028, despite Verstappen not giving a clear no. I'm sure Verstappen, who has signed, is not going anywhere. Toward possibility.
Asked by the media ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix if he thought Verstappen would follow through on his contract with Red Bull, Horner replied:
“So he has a great team around him and he has a lot of faith in that team and we have accomplished so much together.
“He intends to honor his contract until 2028 and on the team's side, on Max's side, we are determined to build on the success we have already achieved.
“These 55 wins have all come with Red Bull cars, all the podiums have also come with Red Bull Racing cars and we will build on this and add many more wins in the future. I am determined to do so.”
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And the signs are very promising for Verstappen and Red Bull, with Verstappen leading his team to a dominant 1-2 finish at Bahrain F1's 2024 season opener.
That said, Horner is not yet ready to celebrate his third consecutive constructors' title and second straight drivers' title, and will first look at how the RB20 performs at various venues. He stressed that he would have to wait to see if he could perform and that the next venue would be the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia. battlefield.
When asked if there is one aspect of the RB20 that is better than others, Horner replied:
“I think it was a great team performance.
“As you can see, the RB19 is an aggressive evolution. We took a very successful concept with the RB19, the most successful car of all time, but we worked with the entire design team and the production side of the business, supply chain and business You can see that every aspect of this car has been driven to continue to evolve and push beyond the limits of this car.
“There’s some great ingenuity to this car, but it’s just a sample of 24 races on a particular circuit. All the tracks in the championship are quite varied, so it’s a completely different car. Venue, let's see how the car performs on a street circuit like this.”
Verstappen heads into the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix aiming for his ninth consecutive Grand Prix victory.
Read next: Christian Horner responds to Jos Verstappen's controversial comments at Bahrain Grand Prix