Christian Horner teases Toto Wolff with cheeky jibes during factory tour
Christian Horner took aim at Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff during a private factory tour.
Christian Horner allegedly poked fun at Mercedes and Toto Wolff during a private factory tour of the Red Bull Powertrains facility ahead of the British Grand Prix, highlighting the significant number of employees poached from his arch-rivals.
According to a report from Motorsport Netherlands, during a private factory tour for select media, Horner made multiple comments ‘with a wink’ about the number of employees that have made the move from Mercedes’ power unit project to join the Red Bull Powertrains initiative.
These comments will come as no surprise given the war or words that Horner and Wolff have been engaged in this year regarding the transfer of staff between teams. The clash started when McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown suggested that Adrian Newey’s exit from Red Bull could trigger a mass exodus.
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In response to Brown’s comments about Red Bull CVs landing in his in-tray, Wolff stoked the fire. The Mercedes team principal prodded: “Zak is absolutely correct, we are seeing Red Bull CVs through all the levels.”
These comments did not go down well with Horner, who hit back: “Mercedes, we’ve taken 220 people, 220, out of HPP into Red Bull Powertrains so when we talk about losing people I would be more worried about the 220 than one or two CVs.”
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After hearing Horner’s bold claims, Wolff thought it necessary to issue a response. The Mercedes team principal corrected his rival’s figures, insisting that the losses suffered by the Silver Arrows were nowhere near as dramatic as the Red Bull chief suggested.
“You’ve got to work on the maths,” Wolff stated. “19 engineers. Whatever those numbers are, I think there’s natural fluctuations between teams that come and go, which is completely normal. I think we have an engine department that is as good as it can be with top leadership.
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“There is not a millimetre in HPP that I wish would be different in terms of organisational set-up, in terms of the people that work there that I am lucky to interact with. It’s just a perfect organisation.
“You can see they’re just delivering and they have delivered for a long time. Since 2014, we have been pretty much the benchmark, or with maybe another engine, the benchmark. So that hasn’t changed. I really can’t wait for 2026 to come and see the different levels of performance of the power units.”
