Christian Horner has committed an ‘act of spite’ against McLaren boss Zak Brown in their ongoing F1 championship battle

The battle between Red Bull Racing and McLaren rages on, and while the Woking-based team currently have the advantage in both championships, Max Verstappen just delivered the latest blow in Jeddah.

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is one of the most intense circuits on the calendar, and requires an incredible amount of bravery, commitment and skill for any driver to come out on top.

Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri and George Russell were all at the top of the game on Saturday, but it was the Red Bull driver who once again had the edge over his rivals.

The margins were exceptionally small, with Verstappen just one hundredth ahead of the McLaren driver, while Lando Norris will start in 10th after crashing out before setting a time in Q3.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner will be delighted that his star driver continues to driver around the issues the RB21 currently has.

Away from the track, he’s making sure Red Bull have every advantage over McLaren possible, including making one move that would have infuriated their CEO Zak Brown.

Brown and Horner don’t always see eye to eye, and Red Bull’s decision to retain sporting director Will Courtenay until 2026 despite already signing a contract with McLaren is unlikely to have gone down well with his new employers.

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Christian Horner’s ‘act of spite’ against Zak Brown over Will Courtenay’s Red Bull contract

Journalist Andrew Benson was speaking on the Chequered Flag Podcast about Red Bull’s recent staffing struggles and explained: “There are lots of question marks hanging over Red Bull at the moment, and they stem back to the sorts of things Abbi [Pulling] was talking about there.

“Adrian Newey, the greatest designer in Formula 1 history left in April last year.

“That was in the midst of and at least partly caused by the allegations that were leveled against Christian Horner by a female employee, which he was cleared of by two internal investigations.

“Jonathan Wheatley, their longtime sporting director, the guy who was in charge of pit stops, race operations, basically, made them such a finely honed machine. He’s now gone to Sauber, which is becoming Audi.

“And, lo and behold, suddenly, maybe it’s a coincidence, maybe it’s not, their pit stops aren’t as good as they used to be.

“Will Courtenay, their head of strategy, he’s already signed to join McLaren in 2026 and Red Bull almost like a sort of act of spite or peak, if you like, because of the relationship between Christian Horner and Zak Brown, McLaren’s chief executive officer, they’re not letting him go yet.

“Even though he’s basically already sort of half in his mind in McLaren.

“These are three pivotal characters in the Red Bull team. Meanwhile, having lost Newey, they still haven’t been able to get the car to work in the way they want.”

READ MORE: Who is future McLaren sporting director Will Courtenay? All you need to know

Why McLaren signing Will Courtenay is so concerning for Christian Horner at Red Bull

Verstappen’s pole position in Saudi Arabia was partially put down to Courtenay’s input according to Bernie Collins, speaking on Sky Sports F1 after the session.

She said: “We know Max is a phenomenal driver, we’ve seen that year in, year out. We’ve seen him put laps together when we didn’t think it was possible, Japan’s a good example this year.

“I was frantically in the comms box trying to work out from a timing point of view what was possible, they’ve got much better clues on the pit wall, but to have that discussion early, to go through it, they’ve got a phenomenal strategy team there.

“Will Courtenay is on the pit wall this weekend, they have decided quite early that two runs was possible, can we make that happen, fantastic result for them.”

Red Bull are unhappy to be losing Courtenay, and he may have slightly mixed feelings that an idea he’s played a part in coming up with has scuppered his future employers.

McLaren’s strategy calls in recent times have been questionable to say the least, particularly with both drivers aiming to win the world championship.

The margins in Formula 1 are so fine, that the input of someone like Courtenay could end up determining who wins both titles this season.