The current times are not the best for the Red Bull team, who still recover from the announcement of the departure of Adrian Newey from the team, who is the most successful engineer in the history of Formula 1. But now there is a new controversy that has been uncovered by the Austrian team boss, Christian Horner, who also took time to respond to his Mercedes colleague, Toto Wolff.
Last weekend in Formula 1 he experienced what was his first victory in the highest category of McLaren’s number one driver Lando Norris at the Miami Grand Prix, and it was precisely in those days that it became known that several key members of the Red Bull Racing staff, including the experienced sporting director Jonathan Wheatley, have been approached by other teams that want to take over their services.
Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren F1, left it for granted that his team had had “an increase of professionals from Red Bull”, suspecting that Newey will not be the last of a “domino effect” as a consequence of all the internal conflict that the world champion team is experiencing after a co-worker’s complaint against Horner about a alleged inappropriate and coercive behavior.
Horner decided to speak
Horner, despite this, has said on several occasions that he is not worried at all. about the rumors that talk about possible departures of some senior members of the team, leaving it for granted that its Red Bull Powertrains division “stole” more than 200 people from the Mercedes engine program, High Performance Powertrains (HPP).
“I’m not worried about strength in depth. Of course, there will always be movement between teams“, shot the team-manager. “I don’t know how many people we or Red Bull have hired from McLaren this year. We have hired 220 people from Mercedes HPP for Red Bull Powertrains,” said Horner.
Much more media plot but expected
“So when we talk about losing people, I would be a little more concerned about the 220 than for one or two horses,” added the former driver, who said that it was “inevitable” that Brown and his other Mercedes colleague, Toto Wolff, would seek to make this whole issue much more controversial and high-profile precisely with the press. “I think it’s inevitable. The two candidates involved talk a lot,” he assured. “But I’m not going to get caught up in an eye for an eye. “I would concentrate more on my own problems than those that Toto has,” he said.
Red Bull was quite clear that some of its members reach other teams as part of the usual cycle of a contract renewal and this is understood since Wheatley will end his contract very soon and for a long time he has shown interest in being a team manager and will opt for it if he has the opportunity to make it a reality in a team of Formula 1.
The specialized media Motorsport reported that Red Bull has expanded in recent times the contracts of other workers in positions of relevance to the team, including head of aerodynamics Enrico Balbo and head of performance engineering Ben Waterhouse. In what was the start of 2024, he also tied technical director Pierre Wache to a new contract to be with Red Bull for longer.
After the defeat in Miami, Red Bull led by Max Verstappen and Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérezthey will seek revenge in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix which will be on May 19 at the Enzo and Dino Ferrari Autódromo in Imola, in Italy.
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Mexican driver Pato O’Ward congratulated Lando Norris for his first victory in Formula 1
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Christian Horner comes out in defense of “Checo” Pérez due to a slight incident with Max Verstappen