Christian Horner claims Max Verstappen still seeks Jos' approval in everything he does

GPblog has already covered Horner's comments about Helmut Marko but his latest comments reflect his opinion on the Verstappens, something that is largely missing from his book, which is due out soon.

Horner was asked on the podcast what it meant to have Verstappen's father around the Red Bull garage. He started by explaining why Jos carried so much weight.

Horner then compared Jos with Marko: in both cases, anything they said ended up in the newspapers.

Horner was not entirely critical. He said Jos had played a useful role in his son's early years. He said: "And you know, there were times that he was, as Max was really in his formative years and so on, he was very helpful in keeping Max very much in check and was also his biggest critic."

He then explained how he sees the relationship between father and son today.

Horner said this inevitably causes friction within a team when strong personalities and dynamics are involved. As team principal he had to represent Red Bull's interests, so he sometimes clashed with Jos, saying: "Of course, you know, you end up sometimes in a disagreement. And that added another drama, and of course it all gets serialised. But again, it's part of the role of a team leader."

One flashpoint was the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix, which was won by Sergio Perez, Verstappen's teammate at the time. Jos called on Red Bull to get its priorities right, saying that the team should have backed in his son's attempts to win the race. Horner responded that the team was not "Sergio Perez Racing or Max Verstappen Racing".

The relationship got much worse after the 2024 huge fallout where Horner was accused by a colleague and later cleared.

Despite that, Horner was sacked in July 2025. In the Netflix series Drive to Survive, which was released in February, he said that Max's father "has never been my biggest fan" but added that he did not believe the Verstappens were responsible for his exit.

The book has also put Jos at the centre of another dispute. Horner writes that Marko called Jos "a nightmare" when signing Max was first discussed, as GPblog reported earlier.