F1 | If Red Bull shakes up, will Verstappen flee to Mercedes?

From the succession of events that continue to animate the Horner case, an increasingly clear aspect emerges: the Red Bull team will never be the same again. The gravity of the ongoing conflict is destined to leave victims on the field, the diplomatic solution in this scenario appears impossible.

What had seemed to be the final act of the story, i.e. the results of the internal investigation, was immediately followed by the dissemination of an anonymous email. After the arrival in the paddock of Geri Halliwell (Horner's wife) and the subsequent one-two on the track which brought smiles back to the team, here are the statements released by Jos Verstappen to the British newspaper Daily Mail, confirming an interest in not wanting to lower the intensity of the spotlight on the matter.

Christian Horner, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing with Jos Verstappen

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

This latest development in the saga has further raised the severity of the clash. Jos Verstappen's coming out of the closet (“There will be tension as long as Horner remains in his current position, the team risks exploding. He plays the victim when it is he who causes the problems.”) presupposes the possibility that if Horner should he remain in his place, both Max and he can leave the team.

A hypothesis that a month ago would have been classified as 'fantasy' today finds more than one confirmation in reality. Imagining a future with Horner and the Verstappen clan under the same roof seems very difficult today, even if Formula 1 has often accustomed us to reconciliations driven by mutual interests. According to multiple sources, Sakhir Horner and Jos Verstappen had a heated argument over the weekend, but a handshake followed by a hug yesterday evening didn't go unnoticed either.

There is also another aspect that has not gone unnoticed. Coming out into the open like dad Jos did means taking into account the possibility of losing the match and, consequently, of being able to leave the team with which Max has won everything so far.

“If Verstappen really were to be on the market, even drivers who have a contract in hand would be at risk,” commented an insider. Very true, but obviously for Max today the first option would be Mercedes. Teased about it, Toto Wolff dribbled the question. “I think a driver always aims to have the fastest car, and at the moment Red Bull is the fastest car.” But if Red Bull is precisely the team you want to leave, many scenarios open up.

There are many rumors, some of which are also accompanied by precise information, such as a dinner that would have been held on Friday evening at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manama with Wolff, Jos Verstappen and Raymond Vermeulen at the table, the manager who follows Max from his first steps in motorsport .

The three spoke a lot at the beginning of the summer of 2014, when the results obtained by the then sixteen-year-old Verstappen (making his debut in Formula 3 and in single-seaters) sparked great interest. There was an upward confrontation between Wolff and Helmut Marko, and the winner was the Red Bull consultant who went so far as to put a move to Formula 1 with Toro Rosso on the table. Ten years later, in very different circumstances, Wolff may be seeking revenge. All of this, obviously, if Horner remains in his place, something that not everyone is ready to bet on at the moment.