Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has given his full backing to Max Verstappen in his war of words with George Russell.
The Mercedes driver accused Verstappen of threatening to crash into him after he lost pole position to his rival due to a grid penalty in Qatar last week. Russell said Verstappen told him: “I’m going to purposefully crash into you, I’m going to put you on your fucking head in the wall.”Verstappen is reported to have denied making the comments. Horner gave unequivocal backing to his driver.
“Max does nothing but tell the truth,” said Horner in today’s FIA press conference. “So I believe 100% what he said to be accurate.”
“Obviously he had a large amount of frustration last weekend, the way things played out in a scenario that we haven’t seen before and subsequent penalty,” Horner added. “He turned that into motivation and made a blinding start, led the race into the first corner and won the grand prix, which was the best possible response.”
Horner said does not expect the row between the two drivers will lead to another clash between the pair in this weekend’s race.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff criticised Horner yesterday for referring Russell as being “hysterical”. Horner claimed his words were not intended as a description of the driver’s mental state.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“I wasn’t talking about the psychology of his driver,” said Horner. “When I was referring to ‘hysterics’ I was more referring to the roasting that he gave his team when they fitted a set of hards on the car when he asked for a set of mediums and expressed his displeasure for the tyre choice that they put on the car. I’d get fined if were to use the language that was used in this press conference.”
In response to Wolff description of him as being a “yapping little terrier,” Horner said: “To be called a terrier, is that such a bad thing?
“They’re not afraid of having a go at the bigger dogs. I’d rather be a terrier than a wolf, maybe.”
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Go ad-free for just £1 per month
>> Find out more and sign up
2024 Qatar Grand Prix
- Horner ‘believes 100%’ Verstappen did not threaten to crash into Russell
- Russell and Verstappen cast new light on clash which triggered explosive row
- Hamilton’s puncture not caused by mirror debris – Mercedes
- Another start-to-finish win shows Qatar GP could be F1’s most processional race
- “Am I dead last now?” Unheard radio from Hamilton’s disastrous Qatar GP
Ciaran Bohane
6th December 2024, 13:24
Surely Max should sue for defamation and all he needs is for Christian to testify and he has the case won?
osnola
6th December 2024, 13:27
great roasting of a teammanager that is claiming the moral upper hand, all while attacking his opponent.
Billy Rae Flop
6th December 2024, 14:48
It’s better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war. That’s life. You and Horner probably don’t know much about wolf packs. But yeah Horner was roasting himself there…
Kata
7th December 2024, 7:23
And that’s it, wolfs go in packs and then attack. Terriers do it al alone…
Carsten Nielsen (@carstenb)
6th December 2024, 13:29
Believes 100%.
Were you a witness or not?
If not this is hear say.
I don’t believe (100%) a word coming out of the mouth of Horni.
Biggsy
6th December 2024, 13:30
I wouldn’t believe Horner to tell the truth, even if his life depended on it.
Ben
6th December 2024, 14:51
+1 his bias to the golden boy is beyond a joke. Never in the wrong. As for whining about penalties RedBull have no leg to stand on after Silverstone 2021.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
6th December 2024, 13:34
Wolff and Horner… So glad I’m not a fan of neither Redbull nor Mercedes.
Invisiblekid (@invisiblekid)
6th December 2024, 13:53
Of course Horner does.
I wouldn’t believe Horner was telling the truth if he repeated verbatim what I had told him to say 5 seconds earlier.
Carl Parker (@mysticarl)
6th December 2024, 14:09
That’s OK then, lets all move on!
BLS (@brightlampshade)
6th December 2024, 15:03
Horner and Wolff deserve each other, you’d have to have toddler levels naivety to believe either of them!
tielemst
6th December 2024, 15:18
So refreshing that both team managers believe their own driver! Unheard of in other sports. Now can we move on? This handbag fight is getting boring.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
6th December 2024, 19:19
There’s no racing until March so it’s all we’ve got.
Sham (@sham)
6th December 2024, 15:46
Even if Horner presented a tape recording of the conversation, I still wouldn’t believe him.
Horner will do literally anything to placate his temper tantrum throwing star driver(s, he did it with Vettel before he calmed down too).
What Verstappen actually needs, is someone to help him learn to control this side of himself and become even more formidable. Unfortunately, those around him just see dollar signs.
Tristan
6th December 2024, 16:10
Ofcourse Horner would…. Jesus, what is going on with sport. Is it racing or days of our lives?
tielemst
6th December 2024, 18:27
WWE vibes. Less sport, more drama.
David
6th December 2024, 18:39
the transition will be slow so that we don’t notice, but the net zero goal for 2030 actually means that come 2030, the show of F1 won’t even have cars or racing, it WILL be just a soap opera of gossip and drama in the pit lane. no racing, just people hanging out in the pitlane dishing tea. kind of like that show…um….big brother. yeah!
sounds fun right?!
Leo B
6th December 2024, 16:20
Televising live all Stewards meetings would sort out once and for all who said what, and who was asked what and what their reply was. It should be adopted asap.
Jere (@jerejj)
6th December 2024, 18:15
I agree
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
7th December 2024, 3:32
I actually have thought of this. I’ve sent 2 registered snail mails, and 2 more courier with tracking requesting a link to audio of meetings or written transcripts. I didn’t expect a reply nor have I received one.
My interest was if there is a broad initial consensus amongst the stewards, or whether they are split over an incident and whether any particular steward is driving the show or pushing an agenda.
BMW P85 V10
6th December 2024, 17:00
Based on the past I also would believe Max’ story over Georges story. Max was always straight forward and didn’t held back if had something to say. If he had said something what Russell was suggesting he would come forward and admit it and would repeat it in front of the camera.
SteveP
6th December 2024, 18:01
Based on the past, Max has “anger management issues”
“Red mist” is the phrase often used describing things he’s done.
Does that give the clue that you need, it’s rather likely he did say it?
Did he intend to follow through when the red mist had cleared? Probably not. Dear Lord, I hope not.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
7th December 2024, 8:09
If Verstappen admitted threatening to cause a deliberate crash he would be hauled in front of the stewards. He’s not stupid.
Ajaxn
6th December 2024, 18:49
Speaking of Red Mist.
“This is what you get for not leaving Space” – Verstappen Monza 2021
After crashing out the faster Hamilton, narrowly missing Hamilton’s head with his tire, and preserving his 3-point advantage.. Thank god for the Halo, Max might have killed someone that day..
Jazz (@jazz)
6th December 2024, 19:31
Near vehicular manslaughter runs in the family.
Ajaxn
6th December 2024, 22:14
Which claim was that?
Crashing out the faster Hamilton, narrowly missing Hamilton’s head with his tire, or preserving his 3-point advantage?
I’ll ignore your mental slurs.
Ludewig
7th December 2024, 2:03
The entire idea that he intended to end up on top of Lewis is extremely dumb to start with. It shows that you have absolutely no understanding of hard such a thing would be to achieve if you intended it.
Furthermore, it was an aggressive overtaking move and you have no evidence that he wanted to crash out Lewis, aside from your own bias, of course. I understand that you want it to be right, because it validates the ugly hatred that festers inside you.
Jojo
6th December 2024, 19:50
Also during FP1 Crofty said:
If what Crofty says is correct, it doesn’t reflect to well on Russell or the validity of his other comments. Although to be honest his rant listing all the things he hates about Verstappen from the past years, and all the hypothetical bad things Verstappen might do in certain situations, didn’t reflect to well on him anyway.
Jojo
6th December 2024, 19:52
Oops, meant to include Crofty’s quote:
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
7th December 2024, 1:15
Yes well that does make it difficult for a lot here. So I expect “crickets” about this. I’ll stay true. Russell should be disqualified as Ham in 09 and Merc gets a 3 race ban in 2025.
Maybe that will provoke something.
Maybe *Max is going to be a shocking biological father!. It shouldn’t be allowed!!”
I’ll say congrats Kel & Max.
SteveP
7th December 2024, 13:25
I’m wishing them all the best, especially in any efforts to keep the poisonous grandfathers away.
Ajaxn
6th December 2024, 22:11
“Our indications”?
Was that like – ‘no comment’ or ‘we can not confirm or deny’, or ‘we can not discuss comments made in the sanctum of the steward’s room. Please see the official records’?
Jojo
6th December 2024, 23:32
I think usually if they don’t name their source it’s because they can’t, so probably something was shared with them off the record by someone who was present in the stewards room.
I don’t think that most stewards would want to be publicly involved in such a petty matter. It’s a pity it wasn’t Herbert in Qatar as he’d likely have spilled the beans by now and we’d know what happened!
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
7th December 2024, 1:18
Hilarious, turning on their own now. Simply lovely.
Mark (@mrcento)
7th December 2024, 0:57
I reckon the truth is probably somewhere in the middle, I.e Max didn’t say he would crash into Russell, but said something pretty throwaway along the lines that implied enough that Russell took as a threat to do so (or jumped on a chance to embellish it a little), for example something like
‘You always find something to complain about over nothing, maybe i should just give you something to actually complain about next time’
See also the comment on Max swearing at stewards, wouldn’t be much of a leap for Max to have sworn about something when talking to them, but not directing it at them, i.e ‘He’s always trying to cause some ****’, Which has been leapt on as him swearing at the Stewards, but the sort of thing i doubt any of them would have much, if any issue with behind closed doors.
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
7th December 2024, 3:13
“Max does nothing but tell the truth” I don’t know if I’ve ever come across an honest person who needs to say this…