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fact-checking horner: did 200 people move from mercedes to red bull

Did Horner tell the truth? Did Red Bull take 200 people from Mercedes?

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  • Ludo van Denderen

Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley and Will Courtenay. These are just some names of senior people who have already left Red Bull Racing's F1 team or are about to do so. An exodus? Christian Horner, the Red Bull team boss, does not think so. Besides, the Brit said: "We don’t talk about the over 200 people we’ve bought from Mercedes." But is that true?

Critics have recently pointed out that many important people left Red Bull, especially after the performance dip. However, during an interview with Britain's Channel 4, Horner pointed out that Red Bull employs 2,000 people and only a few—albeit well-known—names left. The team boss also stated that there had been a long internal effort to train adequate replacements in case people like Newey and Wheatley left.

Horner also said: "We’ve recruited, I think, close to 250 people during the last 12 months, across the project, into powertrains, into the brand new engine shop that we’re building. We don’t talk about the over 200 people we’ve bought from Mercedes. There’s a lot of focus on the two people that are leaving, because they’re slightly more public-facing".

Is Horner telling the truth or not?

Horner claimed Red Bull took 200 employees from Mercedes. GPblog wanted to know if that was the case and contacted the German racing team. When asked, the latter said "we certainly don’t recognise that number". Yes, people have switched from Mercedes to Red Bull, but it is not 200: "It’s low double digit numbers of people over the last five years, including some people who have come back," the team informed this website.

So Horner's claim that 200 Mercedes employees have been taken by Red Bull Racing is likely incorrect, at least according to Mercedes.

This article has been created in collaboration with Matt Gretton