“It’s dishonest to be best mate with your competitor,” Christian Horner sets the record straight about his relationship with Toto Wolff
Red Bull Chief Christian Horner has bashed Toto Wolff for publicly showing his frustration at Saudi Arabian GP a couple of years ago.
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For eight long years before 2022, Mercedes were reigning at the top of the F1 scene with their unbeatable package of formidable cars and talented driver line-up. But just as all good things come to an end, Red Bull started chipping away at Mercedes’ winning streak from the 2021 F1 Championship battle. With their golden boy Max Verstappen beating the seasoned seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, RBR proved that Mercedes were not the invincible force that all the fans believed them to be, and that they, too, could be defeated.
Last year’s F1 battlefield saw a bloodied Mercedes sink to the third spot in the World Championship from their P1 position in 2021. And in their place, Red Bull emerged as the new winners, much to the overwhelming glory of their Team Principal Christian Horner. Now, Mercedes and Red Bull are the two main rival teams and their leaders, Toto Wolff and Horner respectively, have clashed on multiple occasions owing to their all-consuming ambitions for their squads.
Among all the rivalries between the F1 team principals that have been recorded in motorsports history, Horner and Wolff’s enmity might actually top the list. Their dynamic is so well-known across the paddock that fans often ask questions about it to them. At one such interview, Christian Horner said, “Toto I have a huge amount of respect for everything that he has done and achieved. But we’re competitors. I’ve never been a believer that you can be the best mate with your competitor. I think it’s dishonest.”
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Christian Horner explains why Toto Wolff would be a massive misfit at Red Bull
A few days ago, a picture of Toto Wolff in a Red Bull t-shirt did rounds on the internet, which led to all the fans wondering how the Austrian would have managed RBR. To this, Horner said, “He’s a good team manager. But it’s a very different personality and very different values to what we have here in the organisation.” Thus, Christian Horner indicated Toto Wolff would not match with the Red Bull personality because of his views and opinions.
The Briton went on to point out the differences between how he runs Red Bull and how Toto Wolff controls the helm at Mercedes. He brought up the incident of Toto smashing his headphones in frustration at the Saudi Arabia GP 2021. He said, “I would never smash a set of headphones up. Internally I would have smashed mentally those headphones just as hard as him but I just wouldn’t have done it physically.”
While Christian Horner and Toto Wolff’s fights look nowhere close to getting resolved, Mercedes look to be closing in on Red Bull. After some disappointing performances at the start of the season, the Silver Arrows look like they have finally gotten the hang of it with a double podium in Spain and a podium finish for Lewis Hamilton at the Canadian GP. Now, it remains to be seen how the Stuttgart outfit fares at the upcoming race in Red Bull’s backyard–the Austrian GP.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)