Who holds the power at Red Bull? Verstappen or Horner?

F1

Max Verstappen dictating to his team his actions on track has shone a light on the intra-team dynamic at Red Bull – who is in charge?

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Verstappen refused to climb down over team-orders dispute

Red Bull

A pretty remarkable sight presented itself following the São Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon.

After the penultimate race of one of Red Bull’s most dominant seasons, and a year in which Max Verstappen has already set the record for the most victories in a campaign, the team’s hospitality unit was a key location for the row unfolding inside.

And not just inside private offices. As much as Christian Horner wanted to sidestep questions about Verstappen’s decision to ignore team orders and not return a position to Sergio Perez on the final lap of the race – saying “I’m not going to go into what we discussed behind closed doors” – the tension was clear to see.

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Perez has found himself playing No2, even with both championship wrapped up

Red Bull

Unfortunately for Horner, despite the fact that the doors were open to the hospitality units anyway, the offerings at Interlagos are completely glass-fronted, so you can perfectly see the entire communal area of the unit. Teams are then free to use temporary dividers to create specific offices and rooms as they like. And the team had done exactly that, but wasn’t making use of any of them once an initial meeting involving both drivers had ended.

No sooner had Perez and Verstappen headed to face the television cameras, the Dutchman’s manager Raymond Vermeulen took up a position in the middle of hospitality looking out at the paddock, and was quickly joined by a number of team members including Horner and Helmut Marko.

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The animated manner of their exchanges and gesticulations suggested not everything had been resolved or said in that previous discussion involving the drivers, and there was plenty more that each side wanted to get off their chest.

And side feels like an apt word, as it appeared to be Vermeulen and Horner who were most animated at each other. The man in charge of the latest double world champion, and the man in charge of the team that took him to those titles.

“Mateschitz’s death leaves at least a degree of uncertainty”

Clashes and disagreements are mot unusual in a Formula 1 team, this is a high-stakes game after all where emotions run extremely high, fuelled by even higher adrenaline levels at times. But you’d have been forgiven for thinking the situation Red Bull found itself in meant it should be a case of happy families.

Major events can destabilise things, though, and the whole Red Bull group certainly went through one with the recent passing of co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz. Red Bull Racing was very much one of his projects and he ensured the team reflected the ethos he wanted when it joined the grid back in 2005, while still pushing for future success.

His death during the United States Grand Prix weekend leaves at least a degree of uncertainty about how the team will be left to operate in the future, and leadership is being tested already.

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You could argue it was already being tested a number of months ago, with the Porsche partnership falling through when Red Bull’s management was not willing to give away anything like the level of control it was being asked to.

Or more recently in Mexico City, where the team initiated a boycott of Sky Sports for a race weekend in response to what it felt was biased reporting surrounding Verstappen and his title victories. Verstappen made clear he was unhappy about the coverage, and it was suggested that his management’s frustration that another world title was being overshadowed – this time by cost cap controversy – led to the firm stance.

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Verstappen was unusually cryptic in the radio messages he gave

Red Bull

If true, it would show the tightrope Horner has to walk in trying to appease one of the most talented drivers F1 has ever seen, and still maintain control of the team. Become too lenient with the driver who could well win you a huge number of further titles moving forward and Horner’s influence could be undermined. Go too far the other way, and you’re risking arguably the team’s most valuable asset.

The current situation has empowered Verstappen and his camp, to such an extent that the world champion was willing to disobey the team order on Sunday and deliver a public response to the request via team radio. He’s clearly not worried about the damage it would do to his reputation, but more the statement it would make to Red Bull about the way it works.

That’s not to cast Verstappen as the bad guy and make Red Bull out to be saints, either. The response was clear from the driver that he’d told the team previously where he stood on such a topic, and unless those comments had been forgotten then Red Bull was also responsible for creating the situation by imposing team orders anyway.

Somehow, after a year when Red Bull’s car development has been so impressive, Verstappen’s driving has been sublime and a championship double has long since been wrapped up, negative stories and controversies continue to crop up. Some of them clearly annoy Verstappen, others don’t, and Interlagos appeared to be the latter.

Realistically, the worst-case scenario for Verstappen is a breakdown in the relationship with Perez, who feels unsupported by the team and the pair become a bit tougher to manage. But for as good a job as Perez has done on the whole, the average performance difference between the two means there’s only ever going to be one winner if the situation deteriorates and a change is needed at the end of next season.

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Keeping the team harmonious is proving tricky for Red Bull, even when it’s winning

Red Bull

I’m extrapolating potential outcomes over a long period and there’s still a race to go where Verstappen insists he will help Perez if needed. Should that not happen, then the off-season might be perfectly timed to defuse the situation before next year, but a line was clearly drawn in Brazil that will test Horner and Marko’s management skills.

With the situation created by a demand from the team that Verstappen claims it already knew the answer to, there was an attempt from both sides to wield their control over the other that ultimately received pushback, even if it was just over a sixth place.

Who actually holds the power within the team right now is a scenario that is very much up for debate.

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