Christian Horner

Horner aims BRUTAL dig at Wolff and makes 'dishonest' claim over fierce rivalry

Both team principals have exchanged barbed jibes with each other in recent years

Dan Davis

Wednesday 28 June 2023 13:57

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has again hit out at Mercedes rival Toto Wolff, insisting it would be "dishonest" to share a friendly relationship with him.

Over recent seasons, both men have often swiped at each other with their verbal attacks culminating in a grizzly war of words – and the tension between the two reached fever pitch after Max Verstappen's controversial title triumph in 2021.

The duo possess contrasting management styles, too, leading Horner to criticise an outburst from Wolff that led to him smashing his headphones in Abu Dhabi, after the infamous incident during the 2021 race.

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The principals will appear in a brand-new Sky Sports documentary called 'Secrets of Success', released on June 28, and the show has seemingly handed them a platform to continue their thinly veiled jousting in the media.

Quizzed on his current relationship with Wolff, Horner unsurprisingly insisted he would not feel comfortable sharing a closer bond with his counterpart.

Horner and Wolff have hit out at each other several times in the past

Horner: We're competitors

In the documentary, Horner said: "Toto, I have a huge amount of respect for everything that he has done and achieved.

"But we're competitors. I've never been a believer that you can be the best mate with your competitor. I think it's dishonest.

"I want everybody in my team to see that whoever we're racing against is the competition, that's who we're there to compete with and as a team that we're united."

Wolff was caught on camera slamming down his headset after Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton clashed in the 2021 finale, and Horner believes this heated display could have taken a negative toll on the rest of the team.

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton clashed during the finale in 2021

"Any sport is a mind game but when you see a camp part losing it and smashing a set of headphones up you think 'OK, you're feeling the pressure'," he added.

"And if he is feeling the pressure, then everybody else around him is feeling the pressure, because pressure permeates from the top.

"I would never smash a set of headphones up.

"Internally I would have smashed mentally those headphones just as hard as him but I just wouldn't have done it physically. I just think everybody is different."