Christian Horner has hit back at George Russell over the claim that Max Verstappen’s attitude inspired Red Bull personnel to seek exits to Formula 1 rivals last season.
Russell and Verstappen became embroiled in a heated exchange as 2024 drew to a close regarding an incident in Qatar which saw the latter have pole position stripped.
Verstappen wasn’t enamoured with how Russell had lobbied the stewards to get him penalised and stated that he had “lost respect” towards his Mercedes counterpart.
Russell, though, stood his ground and laid into Verstappen in Abu Dhabi, alleging that his Red Bull team had grown tired with his irate response to things going against him.
“I’m not questioning his driving abilities one single bit, but the second he does not have the fastest car, let’s take Budapest as an example, he crashes into Lewis, he slams his whole team, and he loses the plot,” Russell told media including Motorsport Week.
“Straight away after that race, 25 per cent of his engineering team were sending their CVs to Mercedes, to McLaren, to Aston Martin, because they said they can’t deal with a guy like that.”
However, Horner has dismissed Russell’s assertion and has urged the Briton to be more attentive to matters at Mercedes rather than fixating on Red Bull’s dealings.
“I’d be more worried about other issues if I was George,” Horner said as per the Express.
“I don’t know where he thinks and who he thinks they were offering their services to, but all the key people have made long-term commitments to the company.
“If you look at people like [Verstappen’s long-time race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase], and the key members of the engineering team, they are all on long-term contracts.”
Russell tried to unsettle Red Bull
Horner, who ended up involved in the duo’s slagging match along with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, thinks Russell was attempting to unsettle Red Bull amid its past dominance.
“One of the less pleasant sides of the business is the lengths that will be gone to try and capitalise on other issues in other teams,” he continued.
“You have to remember that we came off a season where we didn’t just dominate, but we annihilated the opposition in 2023 and won 22 of 23 races.
“I’ve said it before, but the higher you rise, the sharper the knives, and they got pretty sharp at some points during 2024.
“But when there is so much at stake, other teams will use whatever tools they have to try and destabilise what has been a hugely successful team.”
McLaren instigated Red Bull CV debate
But Russell hadn’t been alone in his declaration as McLaren CEO Zak Brown had revealed that his team had witnessed an “increase in CVs coming from Red Bull”.
Brown’s comments followed Horner having been exonerated when an internal investigation was launched into allegations of inappropriate behaviour made against him.
When asked whether Mercedes had also received Red Bull resumes, Wolff replied: “Zak is absolutely correct, we are seeing Red Bull CVs through all the levels.”
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