Jos Verstappen had a ‘telling’ look on his face in Red Bull’s Spa hospitality after Christian Horner exit

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Christian Horner’s sacking as Red Bull team principal meant all the attention was on the team at the Belgian Grand Prix and how they would operate in his absence.

Horner’s farewell speech left employees in tears as he waved goodbye to Red Bull after 20 years at the helm. The 51-year-old was pivotal to the Milton Keynes outfit’s success, building the team from the ground up and helping them win multiple championships.

But by the end of his tenure, it had become clear that there was friction between several parties within the team. The team principal had even lost his closest ally as the Thai ownership threatened to cut contact with Horner if he did not give up his responsibility with marketing.

Chief advisor Helmut Marko and Jos Verstappen were known to have drama with Horner, but the latter’s feud was by far the most notable. The pair had several heated exchanges over the past 18 months, sparking speculation that son Max Verstappen could leave Red Bull for Mercedes.

Jos Verstappen warned Red Bull would fall apart if Horner stayed, seeing no way of the team improving under his leadership. Thus, his son’s links to the Silver Arrows have intensified, with Red Bull staff believing that Jos is fuelling the Mercedes stories to force a move.

Jos Verstappen had a ‘big grin’ on his face in Red Bull’s hospitality at Spa after Christian Horner’s exit

At the Belgian Grand Prix, where Verstappen Jr claimed the Sprint win, Verstappen Snr was seen reacting ‘soberly’ to Horner’s sacking. The 53-year-old remained tight-lipped on the grid when asked by Nico Rosberg about the situation, leading to a tense exchange.

But while he kept quiet about Horner in public, journalist Nate Saunders saw that Jos Verstappen had a ‘telling’ look in the Red Bull hospitality. He was seen with a ‘big grin’ on his face.

“Obviously it was the first ever time I’ve been at a race that Christian Horner was not at, at Red Bull. And that was the case for a lot of people in Formula 1 who have started working since 2005,” said Saunders via ESPN’s Unlapped podcast.

“So, going into Red Bull, that was definitely telling, that was noticeable. I mean, from the very beginning, when I walked in, and Jos Verstappen was right at the bar there that’s at the front of the hospitality.

“And he had a big grin on his face. It was like a guy who was trying not to smile too much but was smiling a lot, like a guy that’s just won Game of Thrones.

“And Helmut Marko’s stood not too far away from him, holding court with a lot of Dutch journalists who were getting updates and stuff like that.”

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The ‘ill-feeling’ at Red Bull ‘had gone’ at the Belgian Grand Prix after Christian Horner’s dismissal

Horner’s dismissal sparked further speculation about Red Bull’s star driver’s future and whether he could be on the move. However, Verstappen is set to stay at Red Bull for 2026 after new team principal Laurent Mekies made a ‘declaration of love’ to the Dutchman at Spa.

The fresh change brought some improvements for Red Bull as Verstappen won the Sprint and fought Charles Leclerc for a podium in the Grand Prix. Saunders noted that the ‘tension’ and ‘ill-feeling’ around the team had gone after Horner’s exit.

He added: “The other benefit, not just of being able to see who’s where in terms of the pecking order, but he’s also going to be able to see what Red Bull looks like under Laurent Mekies in a year from now.

“The feeling I got, I mean, everyone I spoke to in the paddock, it was kind of, everyone was asking, how much did Marko and Jos Verstappen put the knife into Christian?

“They haven’t really addressed the actual reasons why, you can kind of put two and two together. There’s lots of twos to put together, that’s the problem that Red Bull had, by not addressing it.

“But what you could tell was that a lot of the atmosphere and the tension that’s been there over the past 18 months especially had gone.

“The before, when Christian and Jos had been together, there was always an atmosphere, you knew that the two didn’t get on. There was just ill-feeling, I think, in different parts of the team.”