Helmut Marko has brushed off Toto Wolff’s “stories” about Max Verstappen and blames Jos Verstappen’s recent comments on his driver’s father being a “bigger fan” of Wolff’s than he is Christian Horner.
Seeking to secure a fourth successive Drivers’ Championship title, Max Verstappen in the middle of a tense relationship between his father Jos Verstappen and his team boss Christian Horner.
Helmut Marko: ‘Of course, Toto makes stories out of it’
After the latter was accused, although the charges were all dismissed, of inappropriate behaviour towards a Red Bull staff member, Jos Verstappen laid in the boot as he told the Dutch press that Red Bull would “explode” if Horner stayed in his role as team principal with the team “in danger of being torn apart”.
Caught in the middle of the brewing storm, triple World Champion Verstappen insisted his father was “not a liar” but made it clear he just wanted to focus on the “performance side of things”. That’s a stance he maintained throughout the Horner saga, which ended with the plaintiff’s appeal being dismissed.
However, more recently, grievances have been over Red Bull’s diminishing advantage, one that has eroded so much that the Red Bull driver lost the Dutch GP to Lando Norris by 23 seconds.
“That’s not surprising when you regress the car,” Jos Verstappen told Bild after the Zandvoort race, adding: “You can’t sugarcoat it anymore, the situation is serious. Max won’t be happy with having a car like this. Now it’s up to Horner to get the team back on track.”
