F1 boss Christian Horner initiates 'clear the air talks' after Red Bull drama

Christian Horner in front of Red Bull-crew — Photo: © IMAGO

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Horner initiates 'clear the air talks' after Red Bull drama

Internal Red Bull drama has dominated the headlines recently

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Saturday 27 July 2024 21:12 Updated: 22:28

Christian Horner has joked he had to oversee 'counselling' at Red Bull after recent drama within the team.

Max Verstappen has recently received criticism for delivering a series of aggressive radio messages to his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

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"No mate, don't give me that bullshit now. You guys gave me this f***ing strategy, okay? I'm trying to rescue what's left. F*** sake,” Verstappen said at one point during the race.

The champion’s frustration culminated in a collision with Lewis Hamilton, and when the Dutchman tried to blame his rival Lambiase replied: “I'm not even going to get into a radio argument with the other teams over this Max. It's childish.”

Max Verstappen endured a frustrating Hungarian Grand Prix

Gianpiero Lambiase was on the receiving end of a tirade of curt team radio messages in Hungary

Verstappen and Lambiase in ‘clear the air talks’

Verstappen and Lambiase have since settled the matter and in an interview with Sky Sports, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner shed light on the nature of their discussion.

Christian Horner compares Max Verstappen management to counselling

“Well look I think that Max, we’ve been working with for eight years and we know that he’s a very passionate guy and that's part of what is his makeup that makes him as good as he is now you know when he gets frustrated then he vents we’ve heard that many times,” he said.

“GP and him have had a long relationship, they know each other inside out, so we sat down and we discussed it on Thursday and honestly, I think it’s a blip and you know we move on from that.”

When Natalie Pinkham brought up how polite Verstappen and Lambiase had been in Belgium thus far, Horner laughed awkwardly when he compared the situation to counselling.

"Well it’s a bit like probably after a bit of counselling, he added.

“Thursday is ‘ok guys let’s go through the weekend' and the best way to deal with any issue is to talk about it, talk it through and GP and Max did that and you know I think already turn the page, focus on this weekend, try and go into the summer break in the best possible shape.”

Red Bull Max Verstappen FIA Christian Horner Hungarian Grand Prix Gianpiero Lambiase