Max Verstappen reportedly told Mohammed Ben Sulayem that he should launch his own inquiry into the saga surrounding Christian Horner. The Red Bull team principal was recently cleared of allegations of inappropriate behaviour made by a female employee, though the saga continues to go on.
Last week, after Red Bull announced that Horner was cleared of any wrongdoing, alleged WhatsApp messages and photos between the 50-year-old and an unnamed person were promptly leaked to Formula One journalists, team principals and key figures in the sport too.
As a result, all eyes remain on Horner despite him continuing to strenuously deny the allegations made against him and insisting that he was satisfied with Red Bull’s independent investigation. Max Verstappen’s father, Jos, has since spoken out on the situation and called for Horner to step down.
Ben Sulayem was also among those to speak on the matter, revealing that he felt the saga was ‘damaging the sport’. It was also reported that he spoke with Red Bull star Verstappen at the Bahrain GP to advise him to publicly support his boss.
However, according to BBC Sport, Verstappen responded to the request of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile president by telling him to launch his own inquiry into the matter.
It remains to be seen whether the FIA take the Dutchman’s reported advice onboard. They previously launched an inquiry into Mercedes’ Toto Wolff and his wife Susie after allegations of a conflict of interests.
However, the inquiry lasted just two days as Mercedes and the nine other teams on the grid insisted that they had not made any complaints about the matter and thus the need for an investigation into the pair was unsubstantiated.
Verstappen was asked for his thoughts on the drama-filled saga over the weekend, to which he responded: “From my side, and I think what I can see also from the mechanics and the engineers, we are fully focused on the car and the performance here during the weekend. And that’s how it should be, I think, and that’s what we continue to do because it’s not our business. We’re not particularly involved in that. And we are here, we are paid to do our job, and that’s what we are doing and that’s also what we love doing. So that’s what we focus on.”
