Christian Horner and Jos Verstappen were involved in a heated discussion days before the dismissal of Red Bull.
On Wednesday, the surprising news of Horner’s dismissal by Red Bull after 20 years in the team was announced.
Horner led the team to six construction championships and eight world pilot titles.
The Milton Keynes team acted quickly and named Laurent Mekies as new CEO.
The Frenchman Mekies was promoted since his position as director of Red Bull’s brother team, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls.
Days before the dismissal was made public, it was stated that Horner and Verstappen, father of the star pilot Max, maintained a heated discussion.
According to GP Blog, the tension between the two aggravated and now, Ralf Schumacher has also come to light.
In the podcast of Boxangasse, he commented: «There was another discussion or a heated, at least visual and verbal exchange, between Jos Verstappen, Christian Horner and the press manager. It showed that Jos was not happy with the situation.
But I understand it too. For me, Christian Horner is also a bit difficult person. I must say it. He simply failed to maintain the cohesion of the team, which is not always easy, of course. But I also believe that his current behavior … I can only refer to myself, but he really can’t deal with criticism.
Schumacher also added that Horner chose not to talk to him.
He declared: «We are, or I am, right now, in an alleged blacklist, so he no longer talks to us or with me. Actually, it is a joke, because a man who has won so much should be able to talk about it in front of the camera.
But I think our spectators are interested in that. What is happening exactly? Because? But, unfortunately, it is clear that it is not so good in the strict sense of the word. Now that is also seen within the team. They made a barbecue the day before, but, of course, there was also success in the classification, that kind of thing. But that has already faded.
According to an ESPN report, the atmosphere in the Red Bull team was becoming tense.
It has been suggested that a series of meetings were held during the last two weekends and that at least one of them involved Max Verstappen and director Oliver Mintzlaff, who, as they say, had been pressing for a time for a leadership change.
Formula 1 will return to the end of July with the Belgium Grand Prix, which will be held in the Spa-Francorchamp Circuit.
