Closely followed by the media this Wednesday in Jeddah, Max Verstappen reiterated his desire to talk only about Red Bull’s on-track results, rather than the crisis behind the scenes.
Three days after the publication of his father’s interview in the Daily Mail, in which the latter clearly expressed his opinion on Christian Horner’s situation (“The tension will remain in the team as long as he remains in place. The team is in danger of breaking up”), Max Verstappen was obviously eagerly awaited by the media this Wednesday in Jeddah, where the Saudi Arabian GP will take place on Saturday.

The Dutchman assured us that “the situation didn’t affect the team’s performance in Bahrain (Verstappen’s victory ahead of teammate Sergio Perez). We would have preferred to avoid all this, but it shows that we’re united as a team, and focused on what’s happening on the track.”

On the track, the three-time world champion is keen to stay there, to distance himself from it as little as possible: “I’m a driver, I don’t know what’s going on above me. I’m concentrating solely on performance, and that’ll be the case again this weekend. I just want to put it behind me and have a quieter weekend here.”

“The company is strong, the team is strong,” he added on the medium-term consequences of this crisis. There’s no need to be on one side or the other. But as my father’s son, it would be weird to be on the other side. I just want to concentrate on the track and talk less about what’s going on behind the scenes. We have a good car and a great season ahead of us.”

As for his future (his contract runs until 2026, with two optional years), Verstappen was reassuring about his current employer: “Going to the end of my contract has always been my intention since I signed. I know what they’ve done for my career. I’m very happy here and as long as we’re performing well, there’s no reason to leave.”

This post is originally from L’Équipe