Max Verstappen said he understands his father’s frustration over the latest falling-out between him and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.
Jos Verstappen has claimed he was prevented from taking part in the Legends Parade demonstration run in a Red Bull car at this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix following an intervention by Horner. The event takes place at the Austrian circuit owned by Red Bull.The three-times world championship admitted he was unhappy with the situation. “Naturally, of course, it is not nice,” said Verstappen in today’s FIA press conference. “[Not] for myself, for my dad, for Christian or the team. Of course, I don’t want these things to happen.
“My dad has been quite clear about the reasons behind it and of course I can understand his opinion on that because, at the end of the day, he gets asked to drive the car and finds out he is not wanted to drive the car.
“Well, my dad actually doesn’t care, but he got asked to please do it for the Dutch fans. Red Bull – we have a great relationship with [them], our home track. So I understand.
“On the other end is to focus on performance that it takes, so I want a good relationship with everyone, but of course this scenario could have been avoided.”
Verstappen’s father and Horner have been at odds since the Red Bull team principal was investigated for alleged inappropriate behaviour earlier this year. Horner was cleared following the investigation but the outcome is subject to an appeal.
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Yesterday Horner denied interfering in the decision to invite the former F1 driver to participate in the event. “The Legends Parade is something that is organised by the circuit,” he said. “There was no veto from my side or anything like that.”
“The relationship with Max has always been very good, very strong,” Horner added. “He’s a key part of our team and he’s our driver, he’s the one that is important, obviously, to have a strong relationship with.
“I’ve never had an issue with any of our drivers’ fathers in the past. And whatever Jos’s issues are, I’ve really got nothing to comment on.”
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BLS (@brightlampshade)
29th June 2024, 14:19
Given Verstappen Snr is neither an F1 legend or an ex Red Bull driver I’m more inclined to think this is just Jos trying to pad out his own ego in saying he was supposed to do this until someone stopped him…
BasCB (@bascb)
29th June 2024, 14:31
As mentioned in the article, Jos was asked to drive that car as a fan pleaser for the huge amount of Dutch fans that orange out just about all the grandstands here at the Red Bull ring.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
29th June 2024, 14:40
Jos says he was asked to drive the car. I’m not saying he wasn’t, but at the same time I’m struggling to find it anywhere else that says he was.
Looks like they’re using Patrick Friesacher, someone who seems to do a lot of RBR demos instead.
notagrumpyfan
29th June 2024, 14:41
He was asked to join by the organisers (red Bull).
With his son being the star driver for the RB F1 team, and the amount of Dutch fans there, it seems to make sense.
He might not be a legend like Friesacher, or have the stature of Herbert, but as an F1 driver he has been on fire.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
29th June 2024, 14:48
Out of interest, has anyone at Red Bull ring or otherwise backed up Jos’ story?
At least Friesacher and Herbert have some links to Red Bull, one being an ex Red Bull junior and one having driven for “Red Bull Sauber”.
Not exactly legends though!
notagrumpyfan
29th June 2024, 15:14
Yes (the part about organising and inviting Jos).
Jos is currently sponsored by Red Bull in rallying.
I haven’t checked though if he is part of the Red Bull young driver programme.
Out of interest, why do you (appear to) doubt his story?
BLS (@brightlampshade)
29th June 2024, 15:26
Jos/Max says the organisers wanted Jos to do the demo. As far as I can tell no one from the Red Bull Ring has confirmed this?
I doubt Jos because it’s Jos. He’s a serial liar, as is Horner.
I’m sure you’re aware of all the games at Red Bull, there’s far more to this story but for me it falls at the first hurdle as no one outside team Verstappen seems willing to confirm Jos was ever invited.
notagrumpyfan
29th June 2024, 16:33
It has been reported on this site as far as I can recall, and included in the original official programme. Not that hard to check either of that.
Not sure why you would doubt this.
And do you really believe Friesacher was their original choice; or rather a convenient replacement who happens to be there anyway?
BLS (@brightlampshade)
29th June 2024, 16:49
I can’t say I recall seeing it on this site but then I’ve not read every article.
Ahh a cached copy of a webpage, must admit I didn’t think of that. Happy to admit when I’m wrong and it looks like I was, Jos was down to drive the RB8.
Still don’t believe Jos’ reason for why he’s not driving though :D
notagrumpyfan
29th June 2024, 17:27
;)
Nick T.
29th June 2024, 16:26
As much as I loathe Jos, I don’t think Jos was lying, but neither is Horner. What likely seems to have happened is Horner was never asked about him driving the car and was made by a promotional part of the team. And Horner was like “do we really want to be rewarding this guy for causing trouble and trying to get Max sign for Mercedes?” And I totally get that (BTW, see my last paragraph about how Jos still did have the option to drive).
Jos could have acted like an adult and taken it in stride. Instead he says he doesn’t care while complaining to the whole world showing he clearly does care. Even if Horner was being petty, he could have handled it a better way.
Finally, he was still going to be allowed to drive the car. The only thing that changed was that RBR had taken away all the special filming that was going to be done around it. So, if he just wanted to have fun in the car, he could have. That’s why Horner can say he never refused to let him drive.
Gerrit
29th June 2024, 14:27
At what point is having your father at your work place a hindrance to your ability to work effectively? How many people have their father at the work place? Just seems strange that where Max goes, his father has to be there.
Jos Verstappen has clearly riled up people in Red Bull so why is he so stubborn to want to be in the Red Bull pits each and everytime Max races?
And is this a reflection on Max that he has the disruptive influence his father brings to his workplace, as an acceptable part of his environment?
Joined at the hip? Christ Max, step up and tell your father, thanks but no thanks, am all grown up now and please stay out of my workplace, I can handle it all by my self.
How many drivers have their parents at each and every race?
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
29th June 2024, 14:32
Unless I’ve misremembered, Max got both pole and a win this weekend already, so maybe this whole tangent about disruptions is rather unnescessary.
Gerrit
29th June 2024, 14:56
No, the tangent is relevant as Jos Verstappen is a disruptive influence at his sons workplace in respect to Max Verstappen employers. As opposed to his sons ability to do his work.
How many of us need (or want if you like) our fathers to be at our workplace to make sure we do our best work?
What does Jos Verstappen contribute to the Red Bull effort in F1? if he is only there to make sure Max wins than it is a sad reflection on Max. He is not part of the crew that makes the car go faster.
Lean, mean and efficient workplaces do not need a parent of an employee to be under their feet at each and every job site.
Bit creepy, No?
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
29th June 2024, 16:06
.4s faster than everyone else. All this fatherly disruption is really throwing Max off of his game.
Gerrit
29th June 2024, 16:15
Yep, just imagine how much faster he would be if the Red Bull garage was not disrupted by Jos Verstappen antics.
Or are you saying that Max is 0.4 seconds faster due to his father being in the Red Bull pits? if so Jos Verstappen could be considered a “good” influence in the Red Bull pits, but that is a sad reflection on what motivated Max.
Does your father come to your workplace so that you do your best work? Or can you do your best work without your father being there?
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
29th June 2024, 16:18
The proof is in the pudding. Max is performing exceptionally well. Your argument fails.
Patrick (@paeschli)
30th June 2024, 8:54
Just imagine how much more he would be ahead of Perez without all these unnecessary distractions!
Mayrton
29th June 2024, 16:38
Purely visiting out of interest as spectator I can understand. But I think in general no one above 18 should have his father at work in a structural way. Just doesn’t sound constructive on any level. Plus they already have Raymond there.
Ludewig
30th June 2024, 1:15
Imagine thinking that it is creepy when children love their parents and vice versa. We are mostly learning something about you and it is rather dark.
Gerrit
30th June 2024, 2:09
100% creepy, 100% strange and 100% repugnant that a father goes into their grown adult offspring’s workplace and has disagreements in public with the workplace management.
This is not a father to child relationship, this is a father to grown man relationship. We support our offsprings from the sideline but never get involved with the workplace management squabbles.
Horner’s problems are between Red Bull Owners/Management and Horner. Nothing at all to do with any father whose grown adult offspring works there.
Does your father come into your workplace and have public arguments with your employers? Wow man; that would be so embarrassing, creepy and destructive.
When our children grow up we stand back and let them get on with the own lives, just as the fathers get on with their. That is the natural order for human mental growth.
It seems Jos Verstappen cant let Max be his own person and has to live his life trough Max. Just get a life Mr Jos Verstappen and let Max be the adult person.
Mayrton
30th June 2024, 9:04
I found it hard to argue with Gerrit. It all seems rather obsessive and non constructive and most certainly not in the interest of Max. There is a manager walking around called Raymond. Whatever input Jos may have on work level related stuff, I am sure he can feed this into Raymond.
Nick T.
29th June 2024, 16:30
You love defending Jos. Did you stop to consider the fact that even if it may not be hurting Max’s driving, it could be hurting the organization? People don’t like to be around drama and nastiness. So, yes, it may not have immediate effects, but it is not good for the team point blank. And his meddling has already had negative effects. He and Marko tried to weaponize the Horner scandal and it got extremely ugly and Newey left. So, the proof is in the pudding as you like to say.
SteveP
29th June 2024, 16:42
Well, Horner doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, anytime soon; so Zak Brown* will probably be getting a few more CVs
*and other TP’s
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
29th June 2024, 16:45
I have defended neither Jos nor Horner, nor do I particularly care about their arguments.
That said, your conjecture about Newey is not proof of anything, it’s conjecture.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
29th June 2024, 14:40
From everything I have read about him, Jos appears to be quite a flawed human being.
It is pretty much accepted fact that he has moulded and controlled Max from a very early age.
I am no expert, but I would suggest that Max can only be Max if his Dad is there to help?
José Lopes da Silva
29th June 2024, 14:42
Well, you are no expert
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
29th June 2024, 14:49
I do not claim to be – but we are what our childhoods make us.
Nick T.
29th June 2024, 16:31
You don’t need to be an expert to know Jos is a POS.
José Lopes da Silva
29th June 2024, 16:41
The point is – this Jos Verstappen stuff is a complete sideshow. It’s of little interesting per itself and, more important, it’s irrelevant from a sport matter.
If only we could, in some way, correlate Jos’ stuff and Max’s performances, it might be relevant from a sport matter. The driver is not immune to stuff happening around him. But, as Max is now into his 10th full F1 season and reaching his 200th GP, it’s more than time to realize that this is irrelevant.
Too many people not only try to make it relevant but even try to assert that, for some hidden reason, Red Bull favors Max because Jos has some mystical powers.
Our childhoods mould a part of what we are, otherwise, as Max himself recently said, his sister could be an F1 champion today. Do not mould everything.
The F1 driver that can only be him if his Dad is there to help is Lance Stroll.
Roy Beedrill
29th June 2024, 17:03
A certain 7-time World Champion used to have a lot more of his father presence in the team’s garage for years.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
29th June 2024, 17:24
The difference is that other Fathers didn’t work constantly at trying to destroy the teams from within.
Jos cares about Jos.
I believe he would even destroy Max to gain a shred of personal glory.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
30th June 2024, 4:25
Yours is an absolute fair point. However the OP (Gerrit) initially focused upon Jos’s mere attendance at “each and every race” (which is actually not the case anyway). The presence of a parent, and the presence of a disruptive influence are really two separate issues, and the latter – as per your focus – seems to be the problem here.
Many drivers have had parents attend races to lesser and greater extents and I am unsure I am qualified to comment what an appropriate ‘attendance percentage’ would be. Though if I had a son/daughter in F1 I am quite sure I would be there as often as I could.
MichaelN
29th June 2024, 14:29
So who did not want Jos in the car, as Max says. Not the track, as they had t9nfind a last minute replacement.
Is Horner playing games with the truth again?
Gerrit
29th June 2024, 15:02
You have a very capable and experienced Red Bull car demonstrator in Liam Lawson sitting on the pit wall. Good enough to demonstrate a Red Bull F1 car on one of the most demanding circuit in the world (Mount Panorama/Bathurst).
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
29th June 2024, 14:43
It is this silly and petty type of bickering that just might push Max out of F1.
Horner and Jos need to either learn to ignore each other or get in a boxing ring and sort stuff out.
José Lopes da Silva
29th June 2024, 14:46
This latest development is unfortunate for conspiracy theorists, as apparently the classified material that Jos Verstappen possesses and with which he constantly blackmails Horner, Marko and, presumably, the late Mateschitz before his passing away is not that strong. It does not make him the owner of the team. It does not make Red Bull give an airplane to Verstappen. It does not make Max want to go away from the team, as he could care a little less, but not much – and surely it’s not stopping him from winning 61 races already.
Gerrit
29th June 2024, 15:07
So why does Jos Verstappen have the need to be “at the races”? Sure support a siblling, but at each and every race (bar one I think)?
Would you like your father to be hanging around at your workplace?
Jonathan Parkin
29th June 2024, 15:13
Well John Button went to many of Jenson’s races, but then the paddock loved him
Nick T.
29th June 2024, 16:37
Exactly. The dude basically never said a word. Just watched the races. He certainly never tried to get involved with the team let alone trying to execute a coup on the CEO & TP of McLaren’s or Honda’s F1 team.
mystic one (@mysticus)
29th June 2024, 16:14
would you like to ask the same question to Stroll? why his father is hanging around at his workplace? is it hindrance to his ability? :)
Gerrit
29th June 2024, 16:17
Red herring. Stroll senior owns the team and is there as team owner. Jos Verstappen is not a team owner nor a Red Bull employee. What is his reason to be in the Red Bull garage?
If he is there to motivate Max?
Osnola
29th June 2024, 16:24
Whats your obsession with jos verstappen. Is that you christian?
Nick T.
29th June 2024, 16:39
Him being there is fine or was fine until he tried to get the head of the team fired. If he goes back to simply watching (preferably from the balcony above) without starting controversies, there will be nothing wrong with him being there.
MichaelN
29th June 2024, 17:03
That’s a bit of a stretch. Jos identified Horner as the main source of disruption in the team, and wanted that to go away because it harms the chances for success of his son. The way some media have presented Jos Verstappen as some sort of scheming mastermind is quite unlike anything Jos Verstappen has shown himself to be in the past. He seems more of a ‘problem bad, problem must go’ kind of guy. He’s previously used his fists to make that point, now it’s undiplomatic statements. I guess that’s an improvement of sorts.
Nick T.
29th June 2024, 16:34
Did you seriously try to compare the team owner (who we actually see less shots of the paddock than Jos) to an unemployed father of a driver?
José Lopes da Silva
29th June 2024, 16:44
Who cares? Aside from Christian Horner?
It’s irrelevant from a sport matter!
notagrumpyfan
29th June 2024, 17:37
And it creates nice camera angle shots & sweeps ;)
Maybe even an episode on DtS.
Nick T.
29th June 2024, 22:15
Since when he did just focus on the sport side of F1? Never is when. And everything is relevant when it could possibly effect the team dynamics.
Dale
29th June 2024, 17:33
Imagine hanging around your son’s place of employment and creating drama all the time, because your ego is a massive problem …
Compare Jos’ behaviour to that of Carlos Sainz Snr, or even Alex Wurz or Juan Montoya who are regularly in the paddock supporting their children’s careers … there’s never any drama surrounding anyone except Jos, who also has a history with the authorities for his pass behaviour and aggression.
Patrick (@paeschli)
30th June 2024, 8:57
Audi and Williams are fed up with the Sainz’ clan holier than thou attitude apparently. That’s why the Sainz to Williams rumours have died down and we are suddenly hearing about talks with Alpine.
PlosslF1
30th June 2024, 2:18
Was it bring your Dad to Work Day?….