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Horner backs Verstappen amid Mercedes row: 'He tells the truth'
- Nicole Mulder
Christian Horner has responded to Toto Wolff's 'terrier' comment after Max Verstappen and George Russell's row continued. The public feud between Russell and Verstappen has rekindled the old rivalry between their team bosses, Christian Horner and Toto Wolff. The two slammed each other back and forth in the media ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend. Both, of course, supported their own teams and drivers.
The fighting between Russell and Verstappen began last Saturday at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar. On race day, the bickering between Verstappen and Russell was the talk of the day. The team bosses have continued to make comments which have lapped over into this weekend. Mercedes boss Wolff called Horner weak, stating that he was like a yapping terrier. Horner, in turn, countered by saying he would rather be a terrier than a wolf.
Horner backs his driver: 'Max tells the truth'
As you'd expect from two of the most outspoken team bosses in F1, they decided to back their drivers. "Max does nothing but tell the truth. So I believe 100 per cent what he said to be accurate," Horner said when asked whose version of the story is true. Red Bull's boss points out that Verstappen was not the only person present in the stewards' office who found the course of events rather strange.
"Of course, there are other people in those steward rooms as well. And, they also came back and reported that they were quite surprised at the, if you like, the approach that was taken," Horner reveals.
"As for Toto's other comments, I won't go into that," he says, referring to Wolff's statement that Horner would be 'weak'. "Regarding Toto's other comments, I'm not going to raise to the bait of that. Everybody manages themselves and their teams in different ways. We've won 122 races. We won 14 world championships. I think we're doing all right." The Red Bull boss concluded.
This article was written in collaboration with Toby Nixon
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