Christian Horner: Mercedes should fix their issues, not chase Max Verstappen

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has fired a shot at Mercedes amid their interest in Max Verstappen, pointing out they have “their own problems”.

It was a difficult day for Red Bull and Mercedes at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Red Bull failed to come away from the race with a point to their name after Kimi Antonelli took Verstappen out of the race.

Antonelli was entirely to blame for the incident and has been hit with a three-place grid penalty for the British Grand Prix.

George Russell finished a distant fifth and came under pressure from the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto at one point.

The main story from this weekend has been Mercedes’ interest in signing Verstappen.

Russell revealed in an interview with Sky Sports that conversations have taken place between Mercedes and the Verstappen camp.

After the race in Austria, Horner was keen to point out Mercedes' poor pace and that Red Bull are focusing on their own performance.

“They’ve got their own problems. They were 62 seconds behind the race leader today,” Horner said in Austria, where Crash.net are in the paddock.

“Mercedes have got their own issues. For us, we just focus on ourselves.

We know what the situation is with Max, what the contract is.

“The rest is all noise, which isn’t coming from him.

“Last week’s race winner was 62 seconds behind the race winner, being caught by a Sauber. It shows how it shifts around.”

Red Bull had the pace to race Ferrari

Horner felt it was a missed opportunity for Red Bull.

While McLaren stormed to a dominant 1-2 finish, Horner thought that Verstappen would have had the race pace to fight Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton for the podium.

“We got unlucky [on Saturday] with a yellow flag, and it put us in a position where we’re in the crash zone,” Horner explained.

“Kimi, unfortunately, just lost it in spectacular fashion at Turn 1. Max was through the corner, back on the power, and got wiped out. An unfortunate error by Kimi, he has apologised to Max.

“For us, it killed our afternoon. I don’t think we would have had the pace to race the McLarens. Well done to Lando. Butwe had the pace to race the Ferraris hard.

“George Russell had no pace at all. So I think we would have been in that fight with the Ferraris. We just need to see what damage there is. Hopefully it’s not too bad for Silverstone.

“It was just unlucky. It was Max’s bad luck that he was the one to be collected. It was a mistake, he’s a rookie, they’ve all done it, he has apologised. Apology accepted. But it’s very frustrating.”