Horner disagrees with CEO McLaren: "Almost get the impression he wishes it"

Christian Horner is confident that Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton will get through the season without many incidents between them. The 47-year-old contradicts Zak Brown, who stated last week that a crash between the two top drivers will happen at some point this year.

"If we know how to use the potential of our car, then we can beat Mercedes," Horner told Speedweek.com and others in the press conference. The team boss is looking forward to how the GP weekend goes. "Because we have been quite fast here in the past. But again, it will be a close call against Mercedes. We will have to show a perfect qualifying as a basis for a good race."

Overtaking on the Monaco circuit is quite tricky and so it will be hugely tight for Verstappen and Hamilton if they want to overtake their rival on the tarmac Sunday. Zak Brown also indicated before the Monaco GP that an incident between Verstappen and Hamilton will be inevitable sometime in 2021.

Brown talks about Red Bull

Horner doesn't take much notice of his colleague's words. "He's said that so many times now that you'd almost get the impression he wishes it! No, seriously - Max and Lewis have come close a few times in recent races, and they've shown it's possible without crashing. Of course, if the battle for the world championship remains as exciting as we all hope, then the pressure will be higher and with it the chance of contact. That always brings a lot of risk, but both drivers are smart enough not to do stupid things."

This is not the first time Brown has talked about Verstappen in the media. Recently, the CEO of McLaren also said he was sure that the 23-year-old Dutchman would join George Russell for the Mercedes team next time. Helmut Marko wasn't too pleased about that either.