Yesterday at 11:05
Johnny Herbert has backed Max Verstappen to follow Christian Horner
out of Red Bull by completing a bombshell move to Mercedes.
Horner's departure from Red Bull was announced on Wednesday, having
been its team principal for over 20 years. Herbert believes
Horner's difficult 18 months since being cleared of inappropriate
behaviour by a female employee caught up with him, leading to his
exit. Despite Horner and Red Bull parting ways, Herbert remains
confident that Verstappen will complete a move to Mercedes, which
has been increasingly speculated in recent weeks. "Well, I think
it's not a surprise, I don't think anybody should be surprised,"
Herbert told RacingNews365 during an interview. "It was something
that when it first kicked off, I remember the Ford motor company
weren't exactly very happy with the rumours that were going about
at that present time. He's hung on for a good period of time, but I
think it was something that was never going to go away. "And when
it doesn't go away, it's never a good thing to have that sort of
thing hanging around your neck. But there's also, is it anything to
do with Max? Because, obviously, Jos was very vocal, and not
wanting Christian about. Potentially, I suppose it could be that.
"It sounds very much so, that the Mercedes thing is where he's
probably going to end up. So, it's probably not a surprise
everything with Christian anyway." Red Bull in a 'precarious
position' With the exit of Horner, Red Bull has lost six senior
figures in the space of just over two years , putting the outfit in
a difficult position. Herbert is expecting a rocky patch for Red
Bull whilst it completes somewhat of a rebuild under Mekies'
leadership, particularly with Verstappen and his father unlikely to
be happy with the current performance of the RB21. "Now, it's going
to be a really difficult period for them [Red Bull], because
obviously, with all the changes, with Jonathan [Wheatley] and
Adrian [Newey] and a few other people, and of course, with
Christian as well," added Herbert. "It's in a very precarious
position at the moment, because, like anything in Formula 1, you've
got to be able to have the right ingredients, which includes
personnel, direction, and that's all been slowly, sort of eroded
away. "And then you've got the performances on the track at the end
of the day, and a probably not so happy Max, definitely not a happy
Jos, but it's probably not a happy Max. "Because Max, as you know,
wants to be in a situation of winning races and a world
championship, and that sort of, again, slowly, sort of eroded away
over the last, what, year and a half, I guess."
