Why Horner situation at Red Bull won't affect Verstappen

The start of the new Formula 1 season is just around the corner, which means Max Verstappen will have a chance to take his own record from last season (19 race wins). Johnny Herbert says the Red Bull driver is even better than last year, but the Austrian constructor will face more resistance. He doesn't believe the Horner situation will affect him.

The British former racing driver thinks Verstappen will be even better than he already was in 2023. He believes the investigation into Christian Horner, which is a big thing within the Red Bull Racing team, will not factor into the Dutchman's form. "The Horner situation at Red Bull won’t affect Verstappen - he’ll be even better this year. It’s never a perfect scenario. The fundamental amount of development work has been done already. So, what turns up on the Bahrain tests will have been finalised before the Horner situation arose," Herbert explained.

Why Horner situation at Red Bull won't affect Verstappen

Red Bull will be close to being the best it will ever be. The only thing Max will do is focus on himself and what happens in his cockpit. He will perform better because he is maturing. He will be better than he was last year. We still haven’t seen the best of Max," Herbert added.

"I expect that Red Bull will perform but the pressure will come from the other teams and the gap will close. I think Ferrari will put the most pressure on them this season. In the second half of last year everything was coming into much better shape and the vibe in the team seemed very good. Strategy was much better," Herbert told Grosvenor Sport.

To actually improve on last year's performance will be a huge challenge for Verstappen and Red Bull. After all, the Dutchman won 19 of the 22 races in 2023. Red Bull won 21 of those 22 races, as Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.