Max Verstappen's father Jos "almost considered" Red Bull boss by F1 Insider

F1 pundit Martin Brundle deemed Max Verstappen's father, Jos Verstappen, the boss of Red Bull after the sacking of Christian Horner as team principal on July 9, 2025, by the Red Bull team. While the last one and a half years were anything but smooth sailing for Christian Horner, Jos Verstappen was seemingly not happy with his team's administration.

Verstappen Sr. even called out Horner after the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix and asked for him to leave the team. Martin Brundle insisted that 'team Verstappen' was behind Horner's sacking, and following on with this, the former has now asserted that he's 'almost considered' Verstappen Sr. as the boss of Red Bull.

Brundle said on Sky F1:

"Absolutely. I think since Bahrain last year, I’ve almost considered Jos as the team principal of Red Bull. It’s become a one-driver team and I think that’s something they’ve got to fix as well. But there’s no way the hierarchy in Austria would have done this [sacked Horner without the Verstappen camp being aware]. The Verstappens would have bought into this. They wouldn’t have been blindsided."

Christian Horner has been replaced as team principal on the Red Bull Formula 1 team by the former Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies. Moreover, Horner had led the Milton Keynes-based team since 2005.

Max Verstappen on how Jos Verstappen raised him as a kid

Max Verstappen - Source: Getty

While Martin Brundle has come up with a fascinating take on Jos Verstappen and Christian Horner, Max Verstappen took the time to talk about his early relationship with his dad.

When the four-time world champion was learning his trade in the junior karting competitions, in an interaction with Ford Performance, Verstappen said:

"Normally, the goal is to get it within five laps. That's what my dad always taught me when I was a kid in a kart. He said that you need to immediately be at the limit, have good lap times, because sometimes you can hit the track and just drive to see what happens, but my father always said: no, we're going on the track and we have to be on top immediately."

Max Verstappen has been competing at the pinnacle of motorsport since 2015. Over the years, he has established himself as one of the top drivers and is the reigning world champion in the sport. His statistics stand at 65 Grand Prix wins, 117 podiums, 44 pole positions, and 3208.5 career points.

Other than this, Verstappen has secured four drivers' world championships consecutively since 2021.

Edited by Hitesh Nigam