The Max Verstappen to Mercedes narrative took centre stage once again at the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix, but this time it was Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner who had some pointed words for his rivals.
With Mercedes facing a disappointing weekend at Spielberg, Horner made it clear he is not amused by continued rumours linking Max Verstappen to a Silver Arrows switch. Both Red Bull and Mercedes endured difficult races at the Red Bull Ring.
Verstappen’s race ended abruptly after a first-lap collision with Kimi Antonelli, while George Russell found himself struggling for pace in his Mercedes. Meanwhile, the main paddock chatter was not about race pace, but whether Verstappen could one day be tempted away from Red Bull.
Horner urges Mercedes to fix their own house
As speculation about Verstappen’s future grew—fueled in part by comments from George Russell about conversations between Mercedes and the Verstappen camp—Christian Horner dismissed the rumors and turned the spotlight back on Mercedes’ performance issues.
“They’ve got their own problems. They were 62 seconds behind the race leader today,” Horner declared to the press, including Total-Motorsport.com, after the race in Austria. “Mercedes have got their own issues. For us, we just focus on ourselves. We know what the situation is with Max, what the contract is. The rest is all noise, which isn’t coming from him.”
Horner continued, “Last week’s race winner was 62 seconds behind the race winner, being caught by a Sauber. It shows how it shifts around.”
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He made it clear that Mercedes should be more concerned with their on-track performance rather than attempting to lure Verstappen away from Red Bull: “Mercedes have got their own issues. For us, we just focus on ourselves. The rest is all noise, which isn’t coming from him.”
While Red Bull was left ruing an early exit, Horner insisted they still had the pace to compete for the podium—if only their race had not been undone by Antonelli’s Turn 3 mistake.
“We got unlucky [on Saturday] with a yellow flag, and it put us in a position where we’re in the crash zone,” Horner said. “Kimi, unfortunately, just lost it in spectacular fashion at Turn 1. Max was through the corner, back on the power, and got wiped out.
“An unfortunate error by Kimi, he has apologised to Max. For us, it killed our afternoon. I don’t think we would have had the pace to race the McLarens. Well done to Lando. But we had the pace to race the Ferraris hard.”
Mercedes left in the shade as Red Bull targets recovery
Horner did not hold back in his assessment of Mercedes’ form in Austria. “George Russell had no pace at all. So I think we would have been in that fight with the Ferraris. We just need to see what damage there is. Hopefully it’s not too bad for Silverstone,” Horner said.
Horner also showed some empathy for Kimi Antonelli, acknowledging the learning curve for young drivers. “It was just unlucky. It was Max’s bad luck that he was the one to be collected. It was a mistake, he’s a rookie, they’ve all done it, he has apologised. Apology accepted. But it’s very frustrating.”
The 2025 Austrian Grand Prix left both Mercedes and Red Bull with questions, but for Horner, the message is unmistakable: the Silver Arrows need to address their own shortcomings before stirring up any more Verstappen speculation.
As the Formula 1 circus moves to Silverstone, all eyes will be on whether Mercedes can recover – and if Red Bull can get Verstappen’s campaign back on track.
