Max Verstappen's dad Jos calls for Christian Horner's head as he claims..

Jos Verstappen, father of Formula One triple world champion Max, claimed Red Bull would ‘explode’ if Christian Horner remains as team principal.

He made the incendiary comments as the most toxic weekend in Formula One history concluded with Verstappen Jnr taking a crushing victory at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

‘There is tension here while he remains in position,’ Verstappen Snr told Mail Sport

The team is in danger of being torn apart. It can’t go on the way it is. It will explode. He is playing the victim, when he is the one causing the problems.’

The eyes of the wider world have been focused on the storm around Horner, 50-year-old husband of former Spice Girl Geri, after sexually suggestive text messages he allegedly sent to a female employee came to public attention in a leaked email on Thursday.

That was 24 hours after an investigation by Red Bull’s parent company in Stuttgart had cleared Horner of ‘coercive behaviour’ towards the woman colleague.

Mail Sport can reveal that Jos, a former team-mate of Michael Schumacher, had a blazing row in Horner’s paddock office after qualifying on Friday night.

Verstappen, 51, walked out of the fiery meeting before returning to the room and reluctantly shaking hands.

According to his affiliates, Horner believes Verstappen Snr has orchestrated a campaign to unseat him for the past few weeks, the implication being that the Dutchman even had a hand in the email leak.

Verstappen denies the claims, saying: ‘That wouldn’t make sense. Why would I do that when Max is doing so well here?’