In the latest spree of verbal spat, Christian Horner slams Toto Wolff, reminds him of losing 200 people to Red Bull

The Miami Grand Prix 2024 marked a new chapter in a verbal spat between Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff and Red Bull chief Christian Horner. After Wolff’s claim of seeing more Red Bull CVs Horner reminded him about losing 220 personnel to Red Bull in the engine team. 

It all began with a post-race press conference in Miami, where McLaren's Zak Brown asserted that Adrian Newey's departure is "a bit destabilizing" and might be "the first domino to fall" at Red Bull. Brown commented, "My guess is it’s not the last based on the resumes that are flying around," later adding, "We’ve seen an increase in CVs coming our way from the team." Toto Wolff jumped in affirming, "Zak is correct; we are receiving CVs from Red Bull across all levels."

Now responding to this Horner chose to slam longtime rival Wolff and 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 issues that he has.” 

“We’ve taken 220 people”, says Christian Horner

Further explaining his comments Horner admitted that there will be movements among teams and one should be worried about their problems. “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”, he said to media in Miami. 

“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. Not in the slightest. I don’t know where these CVs are supposed to be coming from but we also get CVs every week.”, he further added.