F1 Pundit Blames Christian Horner’s ‘Max Verstappen Problem’ over Red Bull Downfall

Red Bull is currently undergoing an extremely difficult time in Formula 1. The Austrian outfit is unable to contend for race wins even though Max Verstappen is giving it his all. The Dutchman has amassed two coveted victories out of the first 12 rounds but is still nowhere near the lead of the drivers’ title. Now, with Christian Horner out of Milton Keynes, the team can finally restructure the leadership and hope to revive performance soon. Amid the torrid time, ex-F1 driver Martin Brundle fires shots at the outgoing team principal for wasting Red Bull’s potential in recent years.

Christian Horner had lead Red Bull’s F1 project since the team acquired Jaguar F1 team back in 2005. In his time at Milton Keynes, Horner overlooked eight drivers’ title and six constructors’ championship victories for the team. Regardless, the 51-year-old was snubbed from the team with immediate effect amid their ever-so-worsening form on the grid. Now, Martin Brundle asserts that even though the constructor had many great drivers at their disposal, they focused way too much on Max Verstappen since his junior days.

Martin Brundle recalled the ‘string of great drivers’ in David Coulthard, Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel, and Daniel Ricciardo. All these drivers possessed great racing talent and caliber. Even though Vettel won four out of the eight drivers’ title for Red Bull, he lost massive performance soon after his first four consecutive titles and ultimately exited the team to join Ferrari. Moreover, Brundle pointed out that a lot of younger drivers couldn’t survive at Red Bull purely due to Max Verstappen’s ‘unbelievably fast’ speed and them not being able to keep up with the latter.

They did have a string of great drivers, of course, with David Coulthard, Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo. But we’ve also seen a lot of great young drivers who are still on the grid, like [Alex] Albon, [Carlos Sainz], [Pierre] Gasly wrecked, because Max is so unbelievably fast.

Martin Brundle told Sky F1

Speaking of Red Bull’s ill-fated time in the recent years, Martin Brundle believed that Christian Horner and his focus on Max Verstappen was to blame. Brundle reckoned that the 51-year-old focused everything on Verstappen alone and not pay much attention to the second driver. While this allowed the Dutchman to go on to win four drivers’ title and potentially even more, it hurt the team as a whole to a great extent. Now, if the reigning world champion were to abruptly leave the team, the entire crew could suffer massively.

I think the problem Christian had, is he had to focus everything on Max. That’s hurt the team, to an extent, in general.

Martin Brundle added

Martin Brundle guesses Max Verstappen ‘to stay’ at Red Bull following Christian Horner’s exit

It was previously rumored that Max Verstappen and Co. were looking at their options to fire Christian Horner from the leadership position. Even though the rumors of Verstappen switching to Mercedes pertain, the Dutchman could contemplate his decision to exit now. Now that Horner is gone, Martin Brundle guessed that the 27-year-old was more than likely to stay as the leadership wouldn’t be controlled by a single person.