Why Do the Verstsappens want Christian Horner Gone????

The closing weeks of the off season were dominated not by testing or the car launches but Hamilton's landmark move to Ferrari and the accusations levied against Christian Horner, which triggered a flurry of questions about his future at Redbull and in the F1 Paddock entirely. But did the first head line influence the Verstappens position on the 2nd? 

Now Horner hasn't received much support outside of his close friends and family but noticeably absent from Horner's corner are 3 time Champion with Redbull Max Verstappen and his former f1 driver Dad Jos Verstappen. Horner and the Verstappens had always appeared to have a very good relationship sharing in the glory of the Redbull successes and the rise to the top for Max but since the investigation into Horner for possible controlling and inappropriate conduct with his PA, both Verstappens had been very quiet on the issue till yesterday when Jos was quoted as saying Red Bull Racing will “explode” under Horner’s leadership, which has now put fresh pressure on the team to remove Horner.

But why would they want him gone when Christian has been as bigger influence in Max's incredible success as anyone? 

In Formula 1 politics there is a saying 'always follow the money' and in this case there is talk in the Formula 1 community that its money motivating the Verstappen position on Horner gate. 
It's being talked about that the price tag on Hamilton's Ferrari contract has made Verstappen less than happy about his current salary as 3 time World Champion, and he is looking to change that.

​One way to do that would be threaten to leave the team by using one of the possibly many Exit clauses a contract of his kind would include, one such clause (not confirmed to have been included in Verstappens contract) would be that certain personal have to be employed by Redbull for Max to stay. One such person is likely Christian Horner. If the conclusion of the The Horner saga is that he leaves the team, it could activate an exit clause that Verstappen could use to negotiate a better salary and with the Mercedes seat wide open Max is in a great position to leverage his talent to make Hamilton's financial incentive to join Ferrari look like a 5 year olds pocket money.

Now the Verstappen's certainly don't have the power to oust Horner on their own and are not behind the accusations against him. But have they seen an opportunity to benefit from the situation. We will see! 

Joanna Blackmore 
Writer  @f1journal.co.uk