What's behind Jos Verstappen escalating Red Bull's Horner crisis

the controversy surrounding Red Bull and its F1 team boss Christian Herer has descended into crisis after extraordinary tension within the team was made public by Max ven's father Yos F1 season opener was dominated by Red Bull with a one-w for world champion Max fappen and teammate Sergio Perez but the curtain Razer was overshadowed constantly through a remarkable week in Bahrain and what was a dream start on track has been nothing less than a nightmare off it Rebel and hoer hoped a line could be drawn under the ations about his conduct towards a female member of Staff when the parent company dismissed a grievance against him on the eve of the new season instead it has escalated to new heights culminating in yosa stappen shock warning that redel racing will explode if Herer remains in charge on Wednesday ahead of the bar and Grand prie Red Bull's parent company opted to keep heret in his positions as team principal and CEO of Red Bull Racing this followed the conclusion of the investigation into allegations about his conduct that was an unsatisfactory outcome for some because of the refusal to disclose more detail which meant having to take redel on trust that the process really was fair and thorough and its decision was made for the right reasons but the situation quickly moved well beyond calls for more transparency about 24 hours after seemingly being cleared towards the end of her's first day in The Paddock a dossier of 79 files implied to be evidence from the investigation was leaked screen grabs of alleged messages between hor and the complainant was sent to more than 100 F1 Personnel including Championship CEO Stephano de menar FIA president Muhammad Ben all of herner's rival team bosses members of the media including us and yoser stappen who was very much in a group of one this was widely regarded as a deliberate attempt to destabilize and discredit horer rather than be an act in the interest of forcing transparency in Bahrain it was speculated that Yos might be involved but he has denied this is the case the mid event leak meant the situation didn't end with the conclusion of the investigation and it gave way to a remarkable tension on Friday due to speculation another leak would come around qualifying which didn't happen but Herer did have separate meetings with Dominic hary and Ben Cam that day to discuss the situation on race day her was joined by his wife Jerry in a deliberate display of support interpreted by some as a statement of defiance that kept attention on Herer when he should have been laying low after Red Bull dominated the Grand Prix Herer reiterated in his media session he would not comment on the leak which he described as Anonymous speculative messages from an unknown source or about the intentions of whoever was behind it a question about whether the messages were genuine was interrupted and blocked by the team before her could answer but with conviction Hornet insisted he believed he would continue to lead the team for the full season yoser sten's comments have to put that in doubt yosa stappen has not only put fresh pressure on herner by claiming Red Bull and it it team are in an untenable situation he has indirectly called for his head it's also ensured the buildup to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that follows immediately next Saturday will be dominated by The Saga 2 just as her and Red Bull would have desperately wanted this to stop in interviews with UK newspaper The Daily Mail and Dutch publication the telegraph given after his son Max cantered the victory in the race yoser stappen has warned that Red Bull Racing will suffer if herner remains his team principal he said the situation is bad for the team and is driving people apart with tension in the air and has been quoted by the mail as saying the team is in danger of being torn apart and will explode despite her saying after the race that the result demonstrates where the whole team's focuses the reality is it faces an ongoing enormous destabilizer team members track side and at the factory will not be able to ignore the situation nor the specifics not what was leaked regardless of whether it was all real and not what Yos has said now their attention may not deviate when it counts as shown by a Flawless test and season opening race and maybe Herer did retain full or overwhelming support from his team while the investigation was going on and when it was concluded but his leadership has been compromised by the events of the last few days and maybe even fatally undermined that is before factoring in what Rebel's Partners may or may not think remember Ford was putting huge pressure on a resolution and demanding transparency which it may not get based on Red Bull's parent company not wanting to disclose the investigation's report to protect the privacy of those involved yosa stappen is not a normal racing dad who sits idly by in the background he intervenes more and wields more influence than you might think the impact the vapen camp has on Red Bull Racing and on how Red Bull handles its F1 business is enormous and Yos is a key part of that they have a seat at the table literally in the team's Hospitality units at races but also in terms of discussing how the team handles various matters all with the intention of creating the best environment for Max it means a significant figure related to the organization and literally to its star driver is speaking out against her's leadership effectively undermining it and indirectly calling for him to leave his anti-h hor stance will also not help disabuse many in F1 of the notion that Red Bull's F1 operation has split into two factions when Red Bull co-founder Dietrick maitz died in late 2022 it was always possible that Red Bull Racing would be vulnerable to a fundamental shift in how the parent company wanted to proceed with its F1 program many believe that is happening now there is the herner Le Milton keing base on one side with herner also believed to have the support of the uidia family that owns 51% of Red Bull's parent company and then there is the Red Bull parent company's Austrian contingent on the other side led by Red Bull executive Oliver minl who the vapen camp is thought to have aligned with inevitably as the remarkable barend week played out a topic of discussion was where exactly the pressure on herner was coming from and whether it would ever relent this followed a lot of speculation over how the investigation might be exped inditing and inevitable conflict on one hand all that happened was Herer became the subject of due process from a big company the allegations at the heart of all this were clearly taken seriously enough to Warrant a full and lengthy investigation instigated at the parent company's behest that also fits a trend of Red Bull paying more attention to the F1 team and treating it like a proper part of the business with greater accountability we obviously hope the investigation was taken extremely seriously was handled correctly and took place independently of any power struggle but one way or another it has become a part of a much bigger conflict a civil war has started behind the scenes at Red Bull and now the first shots have been fired in the open her Red Bull Racing and Red Bull the company cannot ignore this there will likely be emergency talks to get ahead of the situation before the race in jeda if not the rising tension plays out in full view of everybody in F1 and Max will be confronted with this too he's had to sidestep provocative comments from his father in the past for instance when a blog post by Yos was posted on the official verstappen website in response to Red Bull not favoring Max during the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix a race won by Perez after he had secured a better grid position in part due to crashing in qualifying but this is on another level entirely especially as it came little more than 24 hours after Max had praised Herer in the post-qualifying press conference in Bahrain even though then he stopped short of backing herner to stay in the position Max offered What was seen by many as qualified support when asked if he still had full faith in her's leadership he called him an incredible team boss in terms of how he operates within the team and said you can't even question the performance side Max said that's his focus and horners too and said what's going on is not our business referring to himself and Red Bull's Trackside team but Yos has now made it his son's business by calling the team boss's position into question which is also detracted from that performance Focus whatever Red Bull's response or horners it is beginning to look impossible that he will be able to ride out the scrutiny and the speculation without further threats to his leadership attacks or at least questions will keep on coming partners are demanding answers F1 and the FIA are concerned about the damage this is doing to the championship and rival teams are circling with repeated calls for more transparency and on top of that horer now seems to be coming under friendly fire it is a live and volatile situation and may have even moved on by the time you're watching this video will herna respond what kind of action could Red Bull take could yosa stappen go even further and if so how Red Bull and Horner must have hoped even if it was a bit naive that the controversy would end with the conclusion of the investigation instead it's potentially coming to a head in the most destructive way possible

Channel: THE RACE

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Keywords: f1, formula 1, formula one, F1 news, F1 latest, F1 updates, F1 explained, The Race, the-race.com, grand prix, f1 2024

Id: t5dom3Li7d0

Length: 8min 55sec (535 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 03 2024