Wolff hits back after Horner statements: 'We have been the benchmark since 2014'

F1 News

Wolff reacts after Horner comments on departures
19 May at 19:35
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  • Cas van de Kleut

After the Miami Grand Prix, Christian Horner was unapologetic about Toto Wolff and Zak Brown. According to the Red Bull team boss, the two had been working to destabilise Red Bull Racing for some time. The Briton stated that if he were Brown or Wolff, he would rather worry about the 220 staff the Austrian team has hijacked from other teams. Wolff, however, disagrees with that statement.

Things have been unsettled within Red Bull all season. Horner was accused of inappropriate behaviour, but an investigation concluded that this was not the case. After that, a power struggle was said to be going on between Horner and Helmut Marko. Then Max Verstappen was linked with a departure at the Austrian racing team.

The Dutchman might go to Mercedes, which is an idea Wolff is happy with. The Mercedes team boss made it known several times that he was keen on Verstappen's arrival, much to Horner's annoyance. Wolff and Brown also added that more and more people from Red Bull were applying to their teams. Horner then told Brown and Wolff to be more concerned about all the staff who had moved from their teams to the Austrian racing team to work on the Red Bull Powertrains project.

Wolff responds to Horner statements

Wolff argues to the media, including GPblog, that Horner's calculations are wrong: "You got to work on the maths, 19 engineers and so 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 a top leadership. There is not a millimetre in HPP that I wish would be different in terms of organisational setup, in terms of the people that work there that I am lucky to interact with."

He continues: "It's just a perfect organisation and 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."