Max Verstappen makes Christian Horner admission amid Red Bull ‘strategy’ change

Max Verstappen spoke of a positive relationship with new Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies, who operates with a “very honest” approach, which resonates with him.

But, as the Red Bull team embarks on a “different strategy” with Mekies in charge, Verstappen stressed that experiences lived when Christian Horner was “at the helm”, such as winning his first World Championship in 2021, are memories which he will forever look back on very fondly and cherish.

Max Verstappen on Christian Horner Red Bull era: ‘Achieved so many amazing things’

It was the end of an era at Red Bull when Horner was dismissed as team boss following the British Grand Prix. Horner had been in charge since day one, but more than 20 years on, Laurent Mekies was appointed as Horner’s successor at the head of Red Bull Racing.

Red Bull celebrated a total of 14 world championship wins under Horner. That included a run of four consecutive Drivers’ title wins for Verstappen between 2021-24, having risen to end the Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes dominance.

So, while Verstappen is very much enjoying a new direction at Red Bull under Mekies, he admits that the Horner era memories will never fade.

Asked by Channel 4 for the main differences in how Mekies approaches things compared to Horner, Verstappen replied: “It’s been working well so far.

“Now, you’re not going to reinvent the whole car when you just joined with the team. And I think Laurent has always been very honest about what he has done, and I like that. He’s just, I would say, one of the guys, we get on, yeah, very well.

“But at the same time, also, before, with Christian at the helm, we achieved so many amazing things together. And honestly, I think the feeling that we had as a team, and how emotional everything was in ’21, winning that championship, that is something that you will remember forever, having lived throughout that whole season.

“And, yeah, it’s a different strategy now in the team. And I enjoy working with Laurent, and I’m also very excited for the coming years.”

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Verstappen and Red Bull returned to winning ways with victories at Monza and Baku. That gave Verstappen an outside shot at returning to title contention, his hopes of reeling off five in a row given fresh life.

Faced with the good old ‘hunted to hunter’ cliché, Verstappen was keen to cut out such noise.

“I mean, I’m probably the biggest critic on myself anyway, so it doesn’t matter what other people expect from me or whatever,” he said.

“I go into it [with] exactly the same mindset as when you are, yeah, the hunted, or now the hunter, or whatever you call it, you know. I just prefer to keep it simple. I mean, the car has a throttle pedal, brake pedal, and a steering wheel, and that’s what I have to deal with.”

Pointed out that he is making it sound simple, Verstappen explained how overcomplicating things is a trap which he sees various people in racing fall into.

“You can also overcomplicate things, a lot,” said Verstappen. “I mean, there are a lot of people that try to over complicate a lot of stuff in racing. You just need to try and keep it simple.”

Asked if that could be more a reflection of the capacity which he has, since he can switch seamlessly between racing machines to the point where it perhaps comes naturally, Verstappen replied: “Yeah, maybe it does.

“Maybe it’s a bit different for me sometimes to talk about these kind of things.

“But at the same time, I’ve always worked like that, because as soon as someone tries to overcomplicate things, to me, I switch off, like, for me, it’s too much wasted energy that I have to deal with, and then I just block, I guess.”

With six rounds remaining, Verstappen had trimmed his deficit to Drivers’ Championship leader Oscar Piastri to 63 points.

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