Jos’ Drama With Christian Horner, Max Verstappen Denying Lando Norris Sprint Pole and Charles Leclerc’s Anti Stall Disaster, Everything You Need to Know about Austrian GP Friday

Yesterday we were talking about Lance Stroll, unsurprisingly re-signing with his father’s team, Aston Martin. Pierre Gasly is filling one of the two seats at Alpine and Carlos Sainz is on his way to becoming his teammate. If you don’t remember, the duo had a public fight after and at Silverstone last year. But today, the paddock had other juicy bits to offer. Talk about keeping fans engaged. Jos Verstappen accused his son’s team principal Christian Horner of sabotaging his exhibition run at the Red Bull ring. It turned into an ugly spat, but his son (Max Verstappen) nonetheless scored another pole position, probably not wanting to put Daddy into a worse mood. And Ferrari played Ferrari as the engine of Charles Leclerc’s car stopped for unknown reasons. It was an eventful qualifying day and an even more eventful Friday for the F1 circus.

Max Verstappen’s father Jos’ ugly spat with Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner

After the Bahrain Grand Prix earlier this year, Max Verstappen‘s father Jos famously warned that Red Bull risked falling apart if Horner stayed on board. This was due to the Christian Horner controversy that shook the paddock. Jos and Christian were even seen in an ugly verbal spat that went viral at the time. Since then, it has been pretty obvious that things haven’t been civil. The brewing tensions exploded when Jos stated he was “done” with Horner, who he described as “childish” for sabotaging his plans to drive in this weekend’s Legends Parade.

Jos was set to participate in the Red Bull Legends Parade, which will take place this weekend at the Red Bull Ring. Max Verstappen’s father was to drive the RB8 from 2012 in the event. But Verstappen claimed that he was forced to pull out because Horner didn’t want him filmed. Verstappen said of the boycott to Formule1.nl, “How childish can you be”.

He further added, “There was going to be filming, for example, also with a drone, but Horner didn’t want me to be filmed. I’m completely finished with Horner. It’s like a kindergarten here. I would have been allowed to ride in the end, but I backed out. I find this so childish of Horner, but I think it says something about him.”

Clarifying Jos’ shocking allegations, Horner said, “The Legends Parade is something that is organized by the circuit. There was no veto from my side or anything like that. And I’m sure the legends will be in action later. I’ve never had an issue with any of our drivers’ fathers in the past, and whatever Jos’ issues are, I’ve really got nothing to comment on.” While all of this may come as a shock, a non-shocker was Max Verstappen taking the Sprint pole.

Max Verstappen denies Lando Norris the Sprint pole by 100th of a second

A week after putting in a “perfect lap”, Lando Norris explained Austrian Sprint Shootout as a decent performance by him. He said, “I think reasonably good. I didn’t get entirely comfortable. It must have been a good lap from Max.” And it surely was a good one from Verstappen. He said, “Max Verstappen: It was a positive day. We started well and had a little niggle with the sensor. Then I was able to put a good lap together. “

Lando Norris denied the Sprint Pole to Max Verstappen when F1 went racing in China. The young Britton did the same at the Spanish GP last week, however, Max shone brightest at what he described as his “home race”. Though separated by 0.093 seconds, Lando is right up there in terms of pace and a spectacular machine underneath him has proved to be the fastest on various outings. With Oscar Piasti completing the top three of the qualifiers list, Max might not have it easy with two McLarens breathing down his neck.

Anti Stall from Ferrari and Charles Leclerc compromises SQ3 of Austrian Sprint shootout

It has not been a memorable past few weeks for Maranello-based team Ferrari. Ever since McLaren’s resurgence at the number two spot, Ferrari has been struggling to even put in decent qualifying laps. Though these two events might not be related, the concurrent occurrence is very interesting to look at as Ferrari seems crumbling under pressure, reminding us of the follies from 2022. The same story continued this weekend as an anti-stall and inexplicable engine stoppage put an end to Charles Leclerc‘s ambitions.

Explaining what went down, Charles Leclerc said, “I don’t know what happened. I was in the pitlane, and I got the anti-stall and everything switched off. The team told me we will speak back in the garage, but I came straight here from the car, so I don’t know yet.” He further added, “We weren’t strong, but we were definitely better than P10.” “We’ll try to have a strong Sprint tomorrow to come back to the front.”

This was an eventful Friday. One can only imagine what the rest of the weekend will look like if the events continue to occur with a similar trajectory.