Red Bull team principal Christian Horner gave his honest opinion on Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff, saying the latter is unlike any team boss he has met.
Horner and Wolff led their teams into battle off the track in 2021. The two superiors exchanged insults, barbs, digs and sometimes outright accusations throughout the season. The tensions between them seemed very hot, but both insisted that they had the highest amount of respect for each other.
In the end, they could not be separated, as both their teams won one championship a piece. Red Bull took the Drivers’ Championship through Max Verstappen, while Mercedes got their payback by winning their eighth consecutive Constructors’ Championship.
In the aftermath of the season, Horner gave his honest opinion on Wolff, saying that he was very different to the quintessential team principal.
“When we were fighting Sebastian Vettel against Fernando Alonso for the World Championship, Stefano Domenicali was the team boss of Ferrari,” he told Formule 1 magazine, as quoted by f1i.com.
“At the time, the competition was of a different, let’s say, ‘gentleman’s level’. (But) last year was intense both on and off the track.
“Toto plays it differently, he’s a different kind of animal.”
All part of the game
Horner conceded that while he was equally responsible for the bad blood between the two throughout the 2021 season, it was all part of the sport and that someone had to do the dirty work even if it wasn’t appealing.
“Do I like it? No. Is it part of the sport? Yes,” he explained.
“I don’t know if I’m good at it. But I have a great love for the sport.
“I grew up in this industry and I think what you do on the track is the most important thing that matters.”
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