Christian Horner makes Max Verstappen demand amid Ferrari approach over shock switch

Max Verstappen has been told to start beating at least one every weekend – or he can kiss a fifth-straight title goodbye. The racer is bidding to become only the second driver in history to achieve that feat, after during his heyday.

McLaren have the quicker car, though, and trails both championship leader and as a result. He is the only driver other than the McLaren pair to win a race this year, having tasted victory twice.

But believes his star driver needs to be doing it more regularly if he is to retain his crown – starting with this weekend's . "We need to make sure that we take points off at least one of the McLarens this weekend," he said yesterday.

"We've got to start nibbling into... We're one race win away, 25 points in the scheme of the championship can disappear like that. So we have to keep in touch, we have to keep putting pressure on them and we have to put performance on the car. They're the fundamentals."

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Horner also answered questions over his own future after it emerged that he has been approached by Ferrari. It's understood top chiefs from the Italian team made informal contact with the 51-year-old, who has led Red Bull for its entire 20-year stint on the F1 grid.

The approach raises questions over current Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur's position but Horner insists he's not interested in replacing the Frenchman. He said: "It's always very flattering to be associated with other teams, but my whole career has been spent with Red Bull and I'm absolutely committed to this team."

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Sitting next to chief in a press conference, Horner added: "My commitment, 100 percent, is to Red Bull. It always has been and certainly will be for the long term. "There is a bunch of speculation always in this business, people coming there, people going there.

"People in the team know exactly what the situation is. My Italian is worse than Flavio's English so how on Earth would that work?" And Horner says he is "absolutely" convinced he will continue to work with Verstappen next year despite constant speculation over the Dutchman's future.

It's understood the performance clause in Verstappen's contract, which would allow him to leave if he drops out of the top four of the drivers' standings, expires at the end of June. McLaren were unsurprisingly the pace-setters in practice yesterday with Norris dominating the first hour and Piastri ending the day at the top of the timesheet.

But was left stranded down in 11th, struggling with the balance of his Ferrari to the point his former team-mate said he felt sorry for the seven-time champion.