F1 | Jos Verstappen: “Solidarity with the suspended woman. Max? He's suffering”

Jos Verstappen is not present in Jeddah, home of the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, because he is busy taking part in the Rally de Hannut, in Belgium. But it's as if it were there.

Thousands of kilometers away, Max's father – author of a great pole position yesterday – returned to talk about what is now known as the Horner Case. In this situation, specifically, the former Formula 1 driver expressed full solidarity with the Red Bull employee who had reported Christian Horner for inappropriate behavior and who, after the team principal's acquittal of all charges, was suspended from her work assignment in Milton Keynes.

“I sympathize with the woman, with everything she went through, but we'll see what happens,” Jos Verstappen told MailOnline, later denying that he has or has had a romantic relationship with the person in question.

Subsequently, his colleagues asked Jos if the time had come to put a stop to the case that broke out in recent weeks, as Horner suggested in a recent press conference of the team principals, but he took things further: “I think it's now a little too late. If that's what you want, fine, but I don't think it's possible. I don't want to talk too much, because it would cause problems.”

“The most important thing is that Max is happy,” continued Jos Verstappen. “That's what matters to me. I just want Max to be happy.”

“Regarding the woman, it seems like Red Bull knows what to do with her, we'll see. But I think it's up to her to come out and see what happens. I'm not completely up to date on what's happening to her.”

Then Jos added, crypticly: “All these things that are happening are influencing Max. They only talk about Horner and what happened in that situation. In the press conference that Horner held the other day they only talked about him and his problems, while we should be talking about Max, the car, his performance and the race. I've already said that I think Horner's stay in Red Bull will create problems.”

“Like I said, I think it's too late for Christian to say 'Leave me alone'. But he has the support of the Thai owner, so I think he will stay for the rest of the season. I said it would be bad if he stayed. This situation is not really good for the team.”

To conclude, Jos Verstappen also spoke about the meeting he had with Horner in Sakhir: “We saw each other on Friday, before the race. He said to me: 'Do you trust me? I will do everything for your son'. and we were gesticulating, not we argued. But on Friday we argued in the office and I went out, but then we met again and he told me: 'Congratulations, good race'.”