A family member connected to Red Bull Racing’s top drivers is speaking out about the controversy surrounding the team.
Jos Verstappen, the father of star racer Max Verstappen, told The Daily Mail on Saturday that the race team has “tension” with Horner still as team principal.
“The team is in danger of being torn apart,” Jos, a former racer, told the outlet. “It can’t go on the way it is. It will explode. He is playing the victim, when he is the one causing the problems.”
Horner was cleared earlier this week by the racing organization in a workplace misconduct scandal, but on Thursday, a scandal continued to embroil the Red Bull Racing leader.
A tranche of alleged messages were leaked to hundreds of people — including journalists — that Horner had purportedly sent to a female employee, who reportedly worked at the team’s Milton Keynes headquarters.
The alleged messages included comments to the employee about Spanx and spreading her legs open.
Horner, on Thursday, denied the allegations against him.
He attended Saturday’s Bahrain Grand Prix with his wife Geri Halliwell — the ex-Spice Girls member — as the two came to the race holding hands and sharing a kiss before things began.
Max had another big day for Red Bull, cruising to an easy win.
After Saturday’s race, Horner spoke to Sky Sports, saying the team is “united” off the race track.
“Yes absolutely. We are a very strong team,” he told the outlet. “We have got tremendous support, tremendous partners and great shareholders behind us as well.
“You don’t achieve this kind of result by not being united.”
Horner added that he plans to be at next week’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
On Friday, Max, the three-time reigning world champion, backed Horner’s track record as a racing head.
“Listen, when I look at how Christian operates within the team, he has been an incredible team boss, so absolutely, from the performance side of things, you can’t even question that,” he said, according to ESPN.
Verstappen added he that he was focused on the “performance side of things.”
Speaking to reporters Saturday after his win, the racer said he was happy be out there.
“Today went even better than expected,” Verstappen said, per the Associated Press. “It was a lot of fun.”