Motorsport: Motor racing-Verstappen wants more focus on car, not Red Bull drama

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Formula One world champion Max Verstappen has backed Red Bull’s handling of a complaint against boss Christian Horner and said the saga has had no impact on how he feels racing for the team.

Verstappen started the season by winning both races so far, but those victories at Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have been overshadowed by unspecified allegations of misconduct against Horner by a female employee at Red Bull.

Horner, who has denied the accusations, was cleared of misconduct but the unidentified woman lodged an appeal after her complaint was dismissed, British media reported last week, ensuring the controversy has continued to rumble on in the leadup to Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix.

Verstappen said he did not want to be too involved in off-track issues because his role was to worry about performing in the car.

“But from what I know everything is handled in the right way,” the Dutchman told reporters in the Albert Park paddock on Thursday.

“I’m not going into any further details from that side because I don’t know more than that. And I also don’t want to know because that’s not my job or my task within the team.”

Red Bull GmbH, the Formula One champions’ Austria-based parent company, has not commented on the reports but said before the season that the accuser had a right of appeal.

Verstappen, who has won the last three world championships with Red Bull, said the internal strife had no impact on his performance or comfort within the team, though he hoped attention could turn back to their race results.

“For me, all the things that have been going on, it’s very easy to jump back in the car and perform,” he added.

“There are so many great people also in the garage, for example. That has never changed … as you can see (from) results that we’ve had as a team.

“Would we have liked to have more talk about our car? Probably, yes.

“But we just try to keep on working on the performance and to keep winning.”

Verstappen’s father Jos, a past F1 driver, said after Bahrain that Red Bull risked being torn apart if Horner stayed in charge.

Those comments triggered fears Verstappen may look elsewhere from 2025 despite his contract running to 2028.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said he would love to have Verstappen on his team, with Lewis Hamilton departing for Ferrari next season.

Verstappen did not rule out a move to Mercedes in the long term but said he was comfortable at his “second family” Red Bull and that it would be a great story for him to finish his F1 career with them.

“In a family there might sometimes be, I would just say, not disagreements, but … you can’t choose family. You can choose friends,” he said.

“It’s good, it’s good. I mean, honestly for me, it’s been the same and we just focus on the performance.”

(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)