Toto Wolff in fresh swipe at Christian Horner after Red Bull boss mocked Mercedes exits
Christian Horner deflected from talk of a Red Bull exodus by claiming he had poached 220 staff from Mercedes, prompting Toto Wolff to ask his nemesis to show his working
Toto Wolff has continued his public spat with Christian Horner (
Toto Wolff has rubbished a claim from Christian Horner that Red Bull have poached hundreds of his staff.
Horner made the claim at the Miami Grand Prix earlier this month. It was in response to comments made by Mercedes boss Wolff and McLaren chief Zak Brown about the threat of a Red Bull staff exodus after Adrian Newey announced his exit.
The Red Bull chief snapped back by boasting about the number of engineers he claimed to have signed from Mercedes’ engine division. He said: “I think it’s inevitable. You know the two candidates involved, they talk a lot. I’m not going to get sucked into a tit-for-tat but I’d be more focused on Toto’s own issues that he has.
“I don’t have any concern with the strength in depth. Of course, there is always going to be movement between teams. I don’t know how many people we’ve employed from McLaren this year, or how many people VCARB have employed.
“Mercedes, we’ve taken 220 people, 220, out of HPP [Mercedes High Performance Powertrains] into Red Bull Powertrains. So, when we talk about losing people, I would be more worried about the 220 than one or two CVs.”
Wolff was asked at Imola if he had a response to his rival’s claim. And his first reaction was to question the number produced by Horner, saying: “You’ve got to work on the maths – 19 engineers.
“And, so you know, whatever those numbers are, I think there is a natural fluctuation between teams that come and go, which is completely normal.