Christian Horner responds to questions over his future
Christian Horner gave a defiant response to questions over his Red Bull future following a dominant win at the Bahrain GP.
The team principal is caught up in an alleged “sexting” scandal after being cleared of misconduct by an internal probe.
The 50-year-old was allowed to lead Red Bull into the new F1 season that begun last Saturday, with Max Verstappen cruising to victory as he continued his dominance from last year, while team-mate Sergio Perez finished second.
Afterwards, Horner was asked: “Are you confident you have the full backing of everybody above you and you’ll be leading this team in Jeddah next weekend?”
He replied: “Yeah, absolutely – I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
Horner also added: “You don’t achieve this kind of result by not being united.”
Watch: Horner in ‘video row’
Christian Horner and Max Verstappen’s dad Jos were seen locked in what looked like a fiery argument during the Formula One season opener.
Reports of cracks in the Red Bull camp follow Horner‘s embarrassing sexting scandal – where intimate text messages sent by him to a female colleague were leaked online.
Watch moment Christian Horner & Max Verstappen’s dad Jos have ‘heated’ exchange as team ‘torn apart’ by sext rowHorner on Red Bull’s ‘great start’
Embattled Red Bull boss Christian Horner was delighted with his team’s performance at the Bahrain Grand Prix, as Max Verstappen cruised to victory while team-mate Sergio Perez finished second.
Speaking after the race, Horner said: “Testimony to the hard work behind-the-scenes – maximum points today.
“It’s an aggressive evolution. The design team has done a wonderful job, they’ve pushed hard, you can see there’s innovative ideas. It’s a strong evolution.
“It’s a great start, it’s not a one off. We’re going to have to see four or five races before we see a true pattern. You can’t base too much on this one race.
“It was a great performance by Max and the perfect start to the season. He’s got to keep performing like he did today. He made a couple good passes and drove a strong race. A one-two finish is the optimal.
“We have got a tremendous support, tremendous partners and great shareholders behind us as well.”
Horner posts on Instagram for first time since sext leak storm
Christian Horner took to Instagram to express his gratitude to the Red Bull Racing team in his first post since the sext leak scandal.
“What a weekend. The perfect start to the season,” he said.
“A big thank you to all the hard working team back in Milton Keynes for all their work over the winter to produce another great and very competitive car.
“To our stakeholders, illustrious partners and everyone here in Bahrain, thank you for your unending support and commitment to get us off to the best possible start.”
