Max Verstappen has scoffed at a report that Christian Horner could lose his job as Red Bull team principal if the team’s Imola upgrades fail to close the deficit to McLaren.

According to a report in Italy’s AutoSprint, Horner’s job could be on the line, and it all depends on how Red Bull perform at this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Is Christian Horner facing the axe?

The report claims that Horner may lose the support of the Thai shareholding in Red Bull GmbH, headed by Chalerm Yoovidhya, if the purported upgrade package doesn’t noticeably transform their on-track performances.

However, sources close to the situation dismissed the speculation to PlanetF1.com as being without any basis in fact with a short-term dip in relative competitiveness of no concern to the shareholders.

Horner, who took up the role of Red Bull Racing team principal in 2005, has a contract that runs through to the end of the F1 2030 championship.

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Verstappen revealed he was baffled by the rumours.

“Honestly, I have no idea where they come from, to be honest,” he told Sky Italia. “Naturally, I don’t really follow a lot of that.

“So, people ask me questions about that, and I’m like, ‘honestly, I really don’t know who even puts that in the world.’

“Of course, I think naturally, as a team, we are not entirely happy with how we are performing, but we’re also working on trying to be more competitive.

“But if you ask everyone this question, I think no one is happy or satisfied with their performance, you always want to be better, you want to perform more. That’s what we’re trying to do.

“So, for me, these rumours don’t mean anything.”

Instead of focusing on naysayers and scaremongers, the four-time World Champion says Red Bull are working on closing their deficit to McLaren, who they trail in both championship races.

McLaren have the 1-2 in the Drivers’ standings with Oscar Piastri 16 points ahead of Norris, with Verstappen a further 16 off the pace, while in the Constructors’ they are 105 up on Mercedes. Red Bull are third, 36 points further back.

“We just focus on the performance. Where these rumours come from, I have no idea,” Verstappen continued. “I don’t even know how people can come up with those kind of things.

“We want to improve the car, and that’s what everyone in the team is focused on.

“We have been constantly upgrading the car, trying to find little bits of performance.

“This track is not suddenly where the magic happens, but of course we would like to be a little bit faster. At the moment, I don’t know how much that is going to bring us, to be honest.”

Horner isn’t the only Red Bull personality facing rumours about his future as Verstappen continues to be linked to a move to either Mercedes or Aston Martin, the latter said to have put a $1billion deal on the table.

The Dutchman, though, says he has no intension of leaving the team.

“With the [Red Bull] deal in place, that is my intention to be here until the end [2028] because it would be a great story for me personally to just see it out to the end, because it almost basically means that I’ve been part of one family and one team,” he said earlier this year.

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