Jos Verstappen has reportedly told his friends that Max Verstappen will leave amid Christian Horner row

Max Verstappen's father has seemingly teased about his son's departure from Red Bull amid Christian Horner's controversy.

Red Bull's team principal was accused of inappropriate behavior towards a female employee, and subsequently, an internal investigation was conducted which went on for three weeks. After concluding, Red Bull GmbH issued a statement and "dismissed" the case.

However, not even 24 hours had lapsed since the verdict was passed when an anonymous mail was sent out to several journalists. The email attachment included alleged screenshots of the conversation between Horner and the accuser in question, creating unrest in the Milton Keynes HQ.

Despite the leak, Jos Verstappen and Christian Horner were seen sharing a pleasant chat during the Free Practice session at Bahrain International Circuit on Thursday. However many eye-witnesses claimed their body language wasn't consistent with their words, sparking rumors of a possible feud between the two.

Per The Telegraph, the next day, Jos and Christian had a heated exchange in the latter's office in the paddock. Jos is said to have reportedly told his friends that the reigning world champion might part ways with the Austrian team.

Furthermore, Max Verstappen's father and Toto Wolff were spotted having a rather friendly chat, which felt a bit odd, owing to the bitter rivalry between the Dutchman and Lewis Hamilton. Since the post-Bahrain GP talk, rumors of the 3x Formula 1 world champion's switch to the Silvers Arrows are doing rounds in the community.

Jos claimed that the tensions in the paddock are ripping the team apart and could "explode" if the team principal keeps playing the victim card.

He said (via The Telegraph):

“There is tension here while he remains in position. The team is in danger of being torn apart. It can’t go on the way it is. It will explode. He is playing the victim, when he is the one causing the problems.”

Max Verstappen reflects on his dominant season-opener Bahrain GP win

The first race of the 2024 F1 calendar was held at the Bahrain International Circuit and saw Max Verstappen taking the P1 spot, followed by teammate Sergio Perez in P2.

It is worth noting that the Dutchman had a substantial margin of 22.457 seconds over Perez and 25.110 seconds over Carlos Sainz. When lights went off, Verstappen led every lap of the race after playing a little defensive on turn 1 and maintaining his lead.

While pondering on a dominant season-opener Bahrain outing after a clean sweep in the 57-lap race, he said (via F1 official press release):

"Yeah, unbelievable. I think today it went even better than expected. I think the car was really nice to drive on every compound and I think we had a lot of pace."

The #1 RB20 driver added:

"It was a lot of fun. I felt really good in the car. And yeah, it's always very special to have these kinds of days because they don't happen that often, you know, that it just all goes perfect, then you're just at one with the car and everything just feels great."