With the never-ending rumours about Horner’s sacking at Red Bull, one of the prominent members who were reportedly involved was Jos Verstappen. Reportedly, he had been pushing hard for the Team Principal to be removed from the team. Now that Horner had been sacked, Nico Rosberg went to get the full story from Jos Verstappen himself.
On the grid walk before the Belgian Grand Prix, Rosberg ran into Jos Verstappen and was curious to get an answer from the man himself. Rosberg, however, did not receive the answer he was hoping for from the ex-Formula 1 driver.
Nico Rosberg on the hunt for answers from Verstappen camp
As we all know by now, Nico Rosberg never shies away from asking the more difficult questions. He always asks drivers questions we don’t just want to know, but the questions we need to know. Jos Verstappen, however, didn’t want to play ball on Sunday.
“Last year, you said Christian [Horner] needs to go because he’s gonna destroy the team” Rosberg said, after which Jos immediately went to the defence: “That was a year ago, I have nothing to say on that”
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Rosberg was surprised by the mellow answer from the Dutchman after he had been very vocal in the media at the start of 2024 when the Horner scandal broke. Pushing for an answer to his initial question, Rosberg asked Jos: “So now you’re quiet?”.
Jos Verstappen didn’t respond to any of Rosberg’s questions during their interview. After such a moment, we should ask ourselves whether the silence from Jos could tell us more about what went down leading up to Horner’s dismissal.
The next era for Red Bull is crucial according to Rosberg
Ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg spoke about Horner’s replacement at the team, Laurent Mekies. The new team Principal had some early success with the team, given their achievements at Spa. Max Verstappen stormed to his first Sprint win of the season on Saturday, Yuki Tsunoda got a season-best Qualifying result in the RB21, and we saw both Red Bulls and Racing Bulls cars in Q3 for the first time this season.
Rosberg has outlined the importance of maintaining as many personnel as possible following the departure of Horner from the team. Red Bull has lost a lot of key personnel over the last year. First, Adrian Newey, then Jonathan Wheatley, and the longest-serving member of the team being Horner.
The new leadership of Mekies will need to focus on getting the team back in shape for 2026 and beyond. The key piece in that is making Max stay with the team. A feat that we have recently learned has been achieved. Now that his future is secure, the team will have to focus on getting back to the very top.
It seems that Mekies has definitely succeeded in making a great first impression at Red Bull following a Belgian Grand Prix weekend with many ups and a few downs, which have been identified. Can he keep up this momentum throughout the rest of 2025? Leave your predictions in the comments.
