“I told you already last time, you guys. Don’t ask that again to me. Okay? Are we clear about that? I gave my reasons and I stand by it,” said a really pissed Max Verstappen when he refused to aid his teammate, Sergio Perez, for the second place in the championship. Though the team showcased a collective stance later, despite the two drivers unfollowing each other on Instagram, one can still only imagine what will manifest if the fights kept getting tighter. Is the past set to stare in the face of Christian Horner again?

Back in 2012, when Sebastian Vettel was the golden boy, Mark Webber was giving a decent fight to the man. However, a flouting of team orders and a still of disappointed Webber shouting Multi 21 at Vettel is what remains with us. The duo, often due to the dominance, finished a 1-2 and we see that repeating this year with Perez and Verstappen. Can the ghosts of Malaysia in 2012 come back to haunt Milton Keynes? More importantly, will they be able to control it?

As quoted by Express, Herbert said, “Can you control the driver when he’s in the cockpit? Well, the only way you can control him if he’s going against you as a team at that moment is have a red button on your computer and you basically turn the engine off. The only other way you can do that is make his life more difficult when you go to the next race. But by doing that you only harm yourself as a team. So actually, you can have a word and sort of say ‘come on respect each other, we will let you race’. I hope that sort of continues.” 

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However, after giving a caveat, Herbert probably opted for some damage control.

F1 Expert refuses any existence of a feud between Max Verstappen and his teammate Sergio Perez

Herbert denied there being any feud between the Red Bull duo right now. He is of the opinion that the said war will erupt only when the duo is fighting tooth and nail for the championship, which, according to him, isn’t currently the case.

Herbert clarified, “I don’t think there’s a feud there now. I think that will only rumble to a situation of being a problem when that championship is being fought out between the two. At the moment they haven’t really had that.”

He further explained that team order may come forward in the future, “There will be a point, that I hope doesn’t happen, they decide there is no racing after three laps or the last 10 laps of the race then you don’t race. That I don’t agree with because I don’t think that’s fair on the other driver who could have possibly attacked and won the race because he’s told he can’t. That’s good for the team, but it’s not good for that driver. So I hope he doesn’t get to that point.”

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Do you think we will see soon a civil war brewing between the Red Bull duo?