Red Bull’s owners did something worrying when they saw Christian Horner in the F1 paddock

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Red Bull had a difficult outing in front of their owners at the Austrian Grand Prix after Max Verstappen was taken out after three corners and Yuki Tsunoda finished last.

Verstappen ended a points-scoring streak of 31 races with his DNF, which was caused by Andrea Kimi Antonelli when the Mercedes misjudged his braking at Turn 3.

It capped off a difficult weekend for Red Bull, after they struggled with Yuki Tsunoda, who qualified towards the back of the pack and then finished last in the race after a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision with Franco Colapinto.

F1 Fans disagreed with Christian Horner that Tsunoda was the problem and called for Red Bull to investigate its car problems. F1 technical expert Gary Anderson thinks Red Bull is struggling to fill the ‘void’ left by Adrian Newey, and that they are dealing with a problem they don’t understand.

All of this is amid the backdrop of Verstappen now being able to activate a clause in his contract, having reached the end of June without being in the top two in the championship.

Discussing Red Bull’s difficult weekend on the Formel Schmidt podcast, journalist Joal Lischika observed what the Thai majority owners of the team did when greeting Horner, which might indicate all is not well in their camp.

Red Bull’s Thai owners greeted Christian Horner ‘coldly’ amid Max Verstappen’s rumoured demand

Verstappen’s camp is reportedly demanding that Horner lose some of his responsibilities at Red Bull, in favour of a more fragmented organisation structured like McLaren.

Journalist Michael Schmidt outlined what that would look like, while Lischika noted how the Thai owners reacted when greeting Horner in the Red Bull hospitality.

Schmidt: “The problem at Red Bull, and many people within the team or within the company now see this, is that Christian Horner simply has too much power. He is chairman of Red Bull Racing, Red Bull Technology, Red Bull Power Trains, and marketing.

“Before it was Toro Rosso before he had that taken away from him, but these four things are just too many and you can see McLaren’s model has the advantage with Zak brown, Andreas Stella, and Rob Marshall as technical director basically leading the team. So that is the clear message: Horner is either gone or put aside a bit.

“He has always had the backing of the Thai Majority owners, but they are now taking a closer look, as they know if things go wrong, then this team will be nothing but mediocre.”

Joal Lischika: “I observed it briefly, they greeted each other rather coldly, Christian Horner and the Thai family who came to the hospitality.”

Red Bull on course to match worst season since 2015

Red Bull’s chances in both championships now appear to be over after Helmut Marko and Verstappen both believe there is a slim possibility of them defending their Drivers’ Championship after Austria.

Verstappen is now over 50 points behind Piastri in the standings, and while this is a long 24-race season, Red Bull does not think it is catchable with McLaren operating at such a high level.

McLaren have scored nearly double the amount of points as Ferrari in the Constructors’ standings, while Red Bull are now in no man’s land in P4 after failing to get a regular points-scorer as their second driver.

It would put them on course to match their worst season since 2015, in which they finished P4 in the Constructors’ Championship after failing to win a race all season.