Christian Horner said that everybody at Red Bull is “not forced” to stay against their will, but he is also sure that Max Verstappen is still committed going forward.
Verstappen is committed to Red Bull until 2028, but the recent chaos surrounding the team created rumors suggesting that he could leave the Milton Keynes-based squad beforehand.
Those rumors became even stronger when Helmut Marko seemed to be close to being suspended by the team and maybe even fired. This led Verstappen to admit that without Marko, his stay at Red Bull would be compromised.
In the end, Oliver Mintzlaff confirmed that Marko would stay, calming down the rumors that also Verstappen could leave. However, Horner admitted that “you can’t force somebody to be somewhere just because of a piece of paper.”
Then he continued: “If somebody didn’t want to be on this team, then we’re not going to force somebody, against their will, to be here. That applies whether it’s a machine operator, or a designer, or somebody in one of the support functions that runs through the business.
“Being involved in a team like this involves commitment and passion. Max has that. We’ve seen that, he’s been here since he was 18 years of age.
“I have no doubt of his commitment and passion going forward.”
Horner also reassured that his relationship with the three-time world champion is “absolutely fine”, adding that there is “no tension and no stress”.
“It’s absolutely fine with Max. He’s working well within the team. There’s no tension, there’s no stress, and you can see how relaxed he is around the garage with everybody on the team.
“That’s translating into his performance on the track as well. So we don’t see any issues with Max.”