Christian Horner says Red Bull is indifferent to speculations that revolve around Mercedes potentially snatching Max Verstappen.
The Austrian Formula 1 team is unworried over speculations that Verstappen might join Mercedes in case a seat is available next year.
The German team extended its driver lineup, Lewis Hamilton and Valterri Bottas, for another year. It will eventually lead to both seats available for a grab at Black Arrows. Both drivers are only engaged for 2021 and the future will be decided at the end of the season.
Verstappen currently holds a deal with Red Bull that expires at the start of 2024. Horner commented that if “Lewis decide to stop then Max would naturally be the driver at the top of the list” as a substitute to the British at Mercedes.
Horner was exclusively asked about the speculations. He said: “I think I’ve been around too long to worry too much about what others are doing.
“The most important thing for us is to concern ourselves with what we’re doing.
“And it’s enormously important for ourselves, and obviously Max, to build on the potential that we’ve shown. That’s our objective.
“I’m not really paying a great deal of attention to speculation. It’s: ‘we need to control the things that we have at our disposal. We need to maximise our own performance’, which is absolutely our combined objective for this year.”
Red Bull had an awful season since 2016 with only two victories at hand. Verstappen managed to topped qualifying by winning through the pole at Abu Dhahbi Grand Prix.
Read More: Horner: Red Bull will be stronger this year
Horner shared the Red Bull’s progress and considered it to be “an intense winter – with the whole COVID situation as well”.
He added: “It’s been busy. The team have done a great job working around the challenges that we’ve faced. Generally, I think we’re in reasonable shape.
“I think we’ve been assisted by the fact that there’s a large percentage of the regulations that are carried over, which is unusual.”
Horner also explain how the team cater COVID-19 to make progress.
“We’ve been fortunate, we’ve had very few people affected with corona,” he said.
“And we’re also fortunate that we have a large site that we’ve been able to spread people out [around Red Bull’s Milton Keynes base].
“But, of course, we’ve had a combination in that manufacturing function has largely remained intact. The designer and support functions have either been working on a rotational basis or working from working from home.”
