Max Verstappen hits out at reports of Christian Horner relationship breakdown

Max Verstappen has hit out at reports he has fallen out with Red Bull boss Christian Horner and insisted their relationship is the “same as always.”

Horner is currently being investigated for some alleged inappropriate behaviour, which he denies, and there had been certain sections of the media suggesting Verstappen’s relationship with his boss had deteriorated.

The Dutchman has denied such a thing though and questioned who likes to write those kind of stories.

Max Verstappen denies Christian Horner rift

Verstappen was present in Milton Keynes as the team lifted the covers on the RB20 but the elephant in the room was undoubtedly the investigation into Horner.

While Horner himself admitted it was a “distraction,” Verstappen said he was focused as ever.

“From my side, I am very focused to get ready, to be fit, to be ready to drive the car,” he told media including PlanetF1.com. “Discussing things with the engineers, what you want to do.

“Plus my life is not only Formula 1. I prefer not to think about F1 too much outside of my scheduled training.

“There are a lot of things going on in the background for me and also what I want to do in the future. Also from the virtual side of things that I’m working on, so I’m busy enough.”

But on his specific relationship with Horner, the Dutchman said it was unchanged.

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“Same as always, I can tell you that,” he said. “I don’t know who likes to write these kinds of things. Me and Christian is like always.”

As for the car itself, Verstappen said he saw initial plans for it after the Abu Dhabi race and was pleased with the direction the team chose.

“I saw the drawings in Abu Dhabi, the last race of the season and I was like ‘wow, that’s quite different in a way and definitely conservative’ let’s say like that.

“I think what I like about the team is that we had a great package but they took the chance to really go all out I would say. Try to make it better. Of course time will tell if it’s really, really good but from what I see within the team, everyone is just happy with what they have achieved.”

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