Christian Horner, who recently admitted that Red Bull powertrains has hired 220 Mercedes staff members, claims he is unconcerned about other teams trying to poach big names of his.
A number of important Red Bull employees, including long-term team manager Jonathan Wheatley, were the focus of rival teams’ attention during the Miami Grand Prix weekend.
McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown claimed his team had received “an increase in CVs coming our way from the [Red Bull] team” during Friday’s team bosses press conference.
Brown speculated that the departure of renowned designer Adrian Newey would be only the first domino to fall.
“Am I surprised? Six months ago, I would have been surprised. But given everything that’s gone on since the start of the year and knowing Adrian pretty well, and he’s a very high-integrity individual, I’m not surprised he’s moving on.
“I think the stuff that’s going on there is a bit destabilising. That’s probably the first domino to fall, my guess is not the last based on the resumes that are flying around.”
Noting that they had recruited more than 200 individuals from Mercedes’ HPP engine program, Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner stated that he was unconcerned about the rumors surrounding some of his top team members.
“I don’t have any concern of the strength in depth. Of course, there is always going to be movement between teams,” Horner said.
“I don’t know how many people we or RB have employed from McLaren this year. Mercedes, we have taken 220 people out of HPP into Red Bull Powertrains.
“So, when we are talking about losing people, I would be a bit more worried about the 220 than maybe one or two CVs.”
Brown, Wolff and Horner are three people in the sport who are not afraid to voice their opinions on many things. That’s why Horner is not surprised at the American and Austrian are looking to take advantage of Newey’s exit.
“I think it is inevitable. The two candidates involved, they talk a lot,” Horner said.
“But I am not going to get sucked into a tit-for-tat. I would be more focused on Toto’s own issues that he has.”
