Red Bull poaching will not destabilise Mercedes - Wolff

Toto Wolff is adamant Red Bull's poaching of Mercedes staff will have zero impact on his team due to what he claims is "the collective strength of the group".

As part of the building process of its own powertrains department, Red Bull is heavily recruiting staff, which has resulted in a number of people being lured away from Mercedes.

At present, six are known to have been hired from Mercedes High Performance Powertrains, with Wolff anticipating that figure will rise to around 15, but he remains far from concerned.

Asked as to how destabilising it is to have personnel plucked out of the system by Red Bull, Wolff replied: "It's not.

"We have 900 people there working on the F1 power units. It's a huge organisation and losing 10 or 15 or more will not change the collective strength of the group.

"In a way, it's almost like a natural selection - people stepping out of the way for young ones to move up, and we see it as a big opportunity.

"There is no destabilisation whatsoever because the group is so big. Performance comes from the power of the group and not individuals."

The fact staff are leaving has left Mercedes being forced to plug the gaps, with Wolff confirming promotions are taking place from within.

Red Bull, though, approached 100 staff but has ultimately only managed to recruit what will eventually be 15% of that total, to Wolff's overall delight.

"It's really good to see the really loyal ones who have been approached are staying - it is an overwhelmingly larger number than the ones who have been lured away," added Wolff. "Seeing that loyalty and integrity, in a way, confirms the values of this group.

"At the end of the day there were some really good people that were approached with lottery number paycheques, and they haven't even thought about it twice.

"They stayed because they liked the environment, for what we stand for, and it's a good environment.

"We've proven it's a good environment to work and prosper, and that is something that makes me very proud of the organisation in Brixworth."

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