Mintzlaff preferred not to criticize Horner.

      Oliver Mintzlaff preferred to distance himself from the rather harsh assessments of Christian Horner that Helmut Marko made about the former Red Bull Racing team principal in an interview with De Limburger.

      It should be recalled that the 82-year-old Austrian then accused Horner of every sin, including engaging in systematic political games in which he allegedly constantly used various behind-the-scenes maneuvers.

      “Let Helmut answer for such words about Christian himself,” stressed Red Bull’s executive director for corporate projects and investments in a conversation with a reporter from another Dutch paper, De Telegraaf. “I cannot say anything bad about Christian, simply because he means a great deal to Red Bull. But there always comes a moment when things are not going well and the company has to make a decision. Do you give the person more time, or is it time to find a new leader? We felt it was time for change. For many years, since our project began in 2005, Christian and Helmut cooperated wonderfully — we are talking about more than two decades. Name me at least a few examples of other major sporting organizations where the leadership has not changed over such a long period of time? In short, you can now give very negative assessments of the state of the relationship between these two people. But I would like to stress: they worked together for a very long time and achieved a great deal — I consider that experience to be unique. But sometimes you simply have to change something to give the organization a shake-up.”

      Since July the Red Bull Racing team has been led by Laurent Mekies, and Max Verstappen’s successes in the second half of the season were likely partly achieved thanks to a healthier atmosphere within the team.