F1 News: Wolff pissed that Horner poached 220 Mercedes F1 staff

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner poached 220 key Mercedes design staff from under Toto Wolff’s nose, and Wolff has been seeking revenge ever since.

Horner has hit back at his F1 rivals as a war of words between opposing team principals heats up over a potential ‘mass exodus’ from the champion team.

At the Miami Grand Prix, where McLaren’s Lando Norris snared his long-awaited maiden victory, Brown claimed that Newey’s exit would be “destabilizing” for Red Bull, and predicted a host of other top figures would follow him out the door.

He said Newey was “probably the first domino to fall, my guess is not the last based on the resumes that are flying around. We’ve seen an increase in CV’s coming our way from the [Red Bull] team.”

Wolff said Mercedes had received plenty of interest from Red Bull staffers in making a move to his team, claiming the team had received CV’s: “through all of the levels [of seniority]”.

Horner lashed out at his rival bosses, claiming they should focus on their own team issues – and claiming that he had poached 200 members of Mercedes’ engine team in recent years alone.

“It’s inevitable,” he said of their comments.

“You know the two candidates involved. They talk a lot. I’m not going to get sucked into a tit for tat but I’d be more focused on Toto’s own issues that he has.

“I don’t have any concern about [our] strength and depth … of course there is always going to be movement between teams.

“Mercedes, we’ve taken 220 people out of HPP [Mercedes High Performance Powertrains] into Red Bull Powertrains so when we talk about losing people I would be more worried about the 200, not one or two.”

Former world champion Jenson Button told Sky Sports that he believes many key figures will look to Newey’s departure as a chance to enhance their own reputations by staying at Red Bull and proving they can win without the renowned designer.

“I think that’s a big thing,” Button said.

“It’s a big deal for the rest of the design team.

“Now they get the credit if it goes well. Obviously, if it doesn’t, it hurts them.

“It’s an important time for those guys. They won’t want to step away at this time.

“They want to be at the head of this, if they continue winning.”

Veteran pundit Martin Brundle revealed that he directly asked Horner whether the team was facing a ‘mass exodus’.

Brundle said on Sky Sports: “I had a long private conversation with Christian as well, and I said ‘will you have a mass exodus?’

“If you’ve been part of a multiple championship winning team, you’ve got extra value if you change teams.

“It’s a pretty small world we operate in.

“He went through, not too many specifics, but key people and departments that he’s got in place because he knew Adrian was going to do this, sooner rather than later.

“He did a good job of convincing me that he’s got great people looking at the chassis, the aero, the power unit, etc.”