Red Bull boss Horner puts on brave face amid reports of crisis and Verstappen's possible exit: 'It was not a crisis summit'

Max Verstappen will be racing for Red Bull next season and there is no crisis at the Formula One team, principal Christian Horner said on Friday as speculation swirled about the champion’s future.

Rumours have swept the sport after Red Bull’s motorsport consultant Helmut Marko expressed concern last weekend that the Dutch driver could trigger exit clauses and leave – with Mercedes and Aston Martin the main candidates.

“There’s been a lot of noise outside of the team,” Horner told Sky Sports television at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah.

Vertsappen wil stay at Red Bull, feels Horner

“Max reaffirmed his commitment yesterday. We are focused on making the car go faster, that’s where our focus is. Max is a part of that, he’s a committed member of the team. The rest is all speculation.”

Asked if the four-times champion, who said on Thursday he was not thinking about his future , would be racing for Red Bull next season, Horner replied: “Yes, absolutely”.

“People will always have their concerns. As a team we are focused on sorting the car out. Sort the car out and it doesn’t even become a discussion point.”

Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper suggested earlier, without any sourcing, that Aston Martin were ready to offer Verstappen $88 million a year for three years with Saudi funding.

The team, controlled by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, have Saudi energy giant Aramco as title sponsor and have taken top designer Adrian Newey from Red Bull with Honda also switching next year.

Aston Martin boss Andy Cowell told reporters the team were focused on 2026 with current pairing Fernando Alonso and Stroll’s son Lance.

BEST ENGINE

Verstappen, who has a contract to 2028 subject to exit clauses, has also been linked to former champions Mercedes who have George Russell and rookie Kimi Antonelli this year and are widely expected to have the best engine in 2026.

McLaren team boss Zak Brown said in March he expected Verstappen to join Mercedes but former Mercedes strategy head James Vowles, now leading Williams, doubted that.

“(Verstappen winning in) Japan was for me jaw-dropping, well done to him, but he comes with a lot of downsides as well that you have to acknowledge,” he told reporters over brunch.

“And I think what Mercedes does have is a great culture with two drivers that are delivering near to the peak of the car and with one that’s on the way up.

“So I personally don’t think there’s a place for (Verstappen).”

Vowles said Antonelli, 18, was set to be very competitive while Russell, out of contract at the end of the year, could not be faulted.

Horner speaks on Red Bull ‘crisis’ meet

Horner also addressed reports of a Red Bull “crisis meeting” in Bahrain last weekend, where Verstappen finished only sixth.

“It was not a crisis summit. If you sit down with your engineers and discuss the race, I wouldn’t describe that as a crisis summit,” he said.

“We are not where we want to be. We have got some issues with the car that we are working through and the whole team is working hard.
“We know what the issues are, it’s introducing a series of upgrades over the coming races to address some of those shortcomings.”