Speaking ahead of last weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, Red Bull and Mercedes’ team bosses Horner and Wolff discuss the difficult task of keeping the peace during an intra team rivalry as teammates fight each other for the championship.
“It’s a super tricky job for Christian and the team.”
With Red Bull having a clear advantage over the rest of the field in this season’s championship battle, it was clear from early on that Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez would be the two main competitors in the championship battle. Mercedes meanwhile are no strangers to this situation as seen several times during the beginning of the turbo hybrid era.
Both Toto Wolff of Mercedes and Christian Horner of Red Bull were asked ahead of the Miami Grand Prix about the difficulties of keeping equality between their drivers’ in a situation where both are competing against each other for the championship. A situation both team principles admit is precarious.
“I can tell you from my past, it’s a super tricky job for Christian and the team,” Wolff said. “Because both drivers will obviously try to always feel that they’re fairly and equally treated, whilst at the same time, trying to have an advantage. And I think in our team, it was important to maintain a lot of transparency and clarity, discuss things before we actually go racing on a Sunday. Put boundaries.
“At the end, both drivers, even with Nico and Lewis, respected the team’s opinion, whilst we acknowledge that they have a fight between the two of them.”
“There’s things I probably would have done differently…”
Wolff admits that an intra team championship battle is not an easy situation to navigate, as although both drivers are competing against each other, it’s also important to keep in mind they are competing as part of one unit.
“So going back in time, there’s things I probably would have done differently in 2016, particularly, but the balance right between accepting these two guys are racing for a championship, and it’s within the same garage. And at the same time, they are part of a larger structure. I think that is not always easy, because they are very competitive animals.”
“Any team principal in the pit lane would hope to have that issue.”
Horner on the other hand played down the situation. Although he admits it is a difficult situation to handle, he highlights that communicating to the drivers that they are in fact on equal terms is the key to maintaining a stable situation within the team.
“We just do everything Toto says but just a bit better,” Horner joked. “No, look, I think that it’s a luxury problem, first of all. Wow, I think any team principal in the pit lane would hope to have that issue. And it’s something we’ve experienced before.
“And I think the most key thing is, as Toto was mentioning, is to ensure that paranoia doesn’t creep in and that both drivers are treated equally.”
“There are still variables.”
Horner went on to highlight that although the team will go to great lengths to ensure parity between the drivers, there are always unforeseen and uncontrollable external factors which have the effect of favouring one driver over another at any given time.
He says in an ideal world, the driver who performs best should always rise to the top – barring any external influence.
“You go to pains to provide equality, to the point of who drives out the garage first each weekend, you know, it alternates,” Horner explained. “It even alternates in the debrief who talks first.”
“But you know, it’s racing is Formula 1, and occasionally something will happen like a Safety Car or a pit stop and you can’t control every aspect within the sport. There are still variables. And I think so long as the drivers know that they’re both getting an equal chance and it’s ultimately down to what they do on the circuit, that’s where you want it to play out, not through reliability, for example, to play a key role in a championship fight between your two drivers within your own team.”
