Everybody in the F1 community is aware of the rivalry between Toto Wolff and Christian Horner. The rivalry between the two team bosses of two powerhouses just keeps getting more intense. It all started after Toto Wolff joined Mercedes in 2013. From 2010 to 2013, Red Bull dominated the grid with Sebastian Vettel on the steering wheel. But Christian Horner and Vettel’s rule ended in 2014 when Wolff and Lewis Hamilton began to dominate.
Although the journey back to the top for Horner in 2022 is because of the designer cum technical director Adrian Newey and the driver Max Verstappen. Currently, Toto Wolff is desperately waiting to get back on top. Hence, there has always been a battle for supremacy between Wolff and Horner. But this never-ending battle seems to make the two team bosses always be at loggerheads. Recently, Mercedes boss talked about many employees of his team joining the new Red Bull Powertrains.
Toto Wolff Points Out At The Constant Influx Of Arrivals From Red Bull Too
Currently, the Red Bull F1 team is concentrating on their ambitious project of building the Red Bull Powertrains. They started to plan on building their own powertrains since Honda mentioned that they would leave F1 after 2026. Now, the Austria-based team is actively recruiting employees from different teams. In the meantime, many Mercedes employees have been leaving and joining Red Bull since then. However, Toto Wolff told PlanetF1 that many of their employees left to join not only Red Bull but also teams like Ferrari and Renault. Apparently, Wolff believes that the route from Brackley to Milton Keynes is not one-way.
According to Wolff, “There is a constant influx of arrivals from our rival team.” But as per the boss, team Mercedes does not brag about it, unlike his counterpart Christian Horner and Red Bull. Moreover, there are employees joining Mercedes from other teams as well. Hence, Toto Wolff wishes the best to every ex-employees who joined Red Bull or others. He noted that some of them retired in Mercedes, but the other teams hired them at leading positions anyway. “It is good that they have got a second life in F1,” claimed Wolff
Christian Horner Says There’s “Respect For Wolff But No False Friendship”
Recently, Christian Horner also spoke with talkSports about his rivalry with Toto Wolff. The Red Bull boss believes that It is so easy to pull Toto’s chain. And that is why he enjoys doing that because that is part of the sport. According to him, it is a competitive sport and not a garden party. However, there is a certain level of respect between the two but no false friendship. It does not seem possible that they would meet at a pub sometime. Horner mentioned, “I don’t think Toto is someone who goes to the pub.” Despite every comment, Horner he has huge respect for Lewis Hamilton and everything he has done for the sport on and off the track. He even called him a great ambassador of the F1 sport.
The Mercedes team enjoyed its hegemony from 2014 to 2021 in the turbo-hybrid era. Toto Wolff became the most successful team principal in the last decade. Hence, Christian Horner wanted to get back the throne that was his between 2010 and 2013. Later, in 2021, Max Verstappen of Red Bull won the driver’s championship, narrowly beating Hamilton. Despite Mercedes winning the constructor title in 2021, it was clear that Red Bull was getting close to taking back their throne. That’s what happened since 2022, as Red Bull and Christian Horner are dominating the grid again.