Christian Horner Deems Max Verstappen and Sergio’s Fallout a Bigger Headache Compared to Red Bull’s Ill-Famed Spat

Drivers form the core of any Formula 1 team, as they are directly responsible for the team to win titles. If they don’t sync with each other, however, the result might be dissimilar from expectations. As Red Bull recently witnessed, the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix spat between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. Team principal Christian Horner shared his take on the partnership when compared to Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

Despite the infamous 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix incident, Horner took the side of Seb and Webber. When asked how were things with them, Horner stated to Sky Germany, “Compared to our current drivers, easy. They (Vettel and Webber) were a great pair.”

“We had some fantastic times when you look back now at what we did together. We’re all a bit older. Some a bit bigger. It was incredible, an incredible time for the team. Incredible time for these guys (Vettel and Webber),” further asserted the British boss in a report published by Planet F1.

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Verstappen and Perez have driven together for the Milton-Keynes-based team for two years now. They have shown enough capabilities in these two years to be compared with the great Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber duo from the last decade. However, the differences between the current Red Bull driver pairing were on full display at Interlagos.

Christian Horner faced a similar situation in 2013

Things looked great for Red Bull when they visited Malaysia in 2013. The race in the Asian country started well, with Vettel starting at the pole position. However, it was his teammate who took the lead.

As Webber and Vettel were running comfortably in P1 and P2, Red Bull directed the German to hold station with ‘Multi-21’ behind his Australian teammate. Vettel immediately denied the instruction and attacked Webber for the lead with 13 laps to go.

The sudden move by the four-time world champion left Mark Webber surprised as he conveyed his thoughts on the radio. Webber said, “Ok, that’s good teamwork!” in a sarcastic tone. Vettel eventually got past Webber to pick up the win later on.

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As the race ended, the Red Bull garage looked cold. The Aussie was fuming in the cooldown room as he stared at Vettel. The relationship between the two teammates was never the same post that incident, and soon Webber left the team in 2013.