While Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen battle it out on the track, their team bosses Toto Wolff and Christian Horner trade blows off it.
Back in Baku, there was a feud related to Red Bull‘s rear wing which led Horner to suggest that Wolff “should keep his mouth shut“.
Wolff responded to the situation by calling Horner a “windbag” and recommended that he should be more humble.
However, after looking back on the whole incident, Wolff wishes he would have just kept quiet rather than responding to Horner.
What did Wolff say?
“Last week, I shouldn’t have even reacted,” Wolff told David Coulthard.
“He was rude and I reacted [to that], but in the end, I don’t care at all and I don’t pay attention.
“We are not Hollywood actors, well, not all of us. I just want to concentrate on the team and ourselves, and deliver the best possible job in my role.”
Red Bull in the lead is something new for Mercedes
With the onset of the turbo-hybrid era, this is probably the first time when Mercedes has been pushed so hard. Wolff said that this is a new situation for a significant chunk of his team.
“30 percent of our population has never lost a World Championship,” Wolff stated.
“That’s good, in a way, but this year it is a very different challenge when you feel you are just not quite quick enough. We’re just trying to do the best we can and progress further in order to compete in this Championship.”
Valtteri Bottas or George Russell?
Wolff was also asked about the future of Valtteri Bottas and George Russell in the team.
Wolff responded, “I think we owe Valtteri and he owes us, and we deliver some solid races. Then we will make a point to say ‘what has actually happened and what are we going to do next year?’
“George is obviously a logical choice. There is nobody else around so it is between those two [for the Mercedes seat alongside Lewis Hamilton],” he concluded.
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