The bitterness that developed between Mercedes Toto Wolff and Red Bull’s Christian Horner during the 2021 championship year shows no sign of abating now two years on. What should have been a nothing story reported in the Daily Mail about Lewis Hamilton’s team approaching Red Bull earlier this season has now descended into farce with claim and counter claim being made.
The article in the British media claimed that a ‘known representative’ of Hamilton had contacted Christian Horner while the seven times world champion was negotiating his new contract with Mercedes. Given that Red Bull look set to dominate the sport until the next big regulation change in 2026 it would be natural that an ageing Hamilton would see if there was a chance to drive for the world champion team in his desperate search for the record breaking eighth drivers’ title.
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Ex-F1 champion Damon Hill agreed this approach would be nothing out of the ordinary but admitted Mercedes’ personnel who are striving to build Hamilton a winning car would feel “let down”.
Now Toto Wolff has waded into the debate suggesting Christian Horner is in fact lying when he told assembled media, “I just don’t know what drives the guy. We don’t understand his thinking to come up with these things.”
The implication is clear, the Red Bull boss has fabricated the story though for whatever reason is unclear.
The story would have dies a death but for the fact that Hamilton used the tactic of ‘plausible denial’ when questioned over the Daily Mail revelations. He also claimed it was in fact Horner who had initiated contact but maintained “there were no confidential discussions” which had taken place.
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Hamilton’s father contacted Red Bull
This escalated matters now that both parties were making contradictory claims raising questions over integrity. Hamilton’s denial forced Red Bull to double down on the story and a spokesperson for the team revealed to the BBC that is was Lewis father who had approached Christian Horner.
Of course Maurice Hamilton is no longer part of his son’s management team which allowed Hamilton to make a ‘plausible denial’ but this was a classic method for the Lewis representatives to sound out Red Bull without having their fingerprints all over the approach.
Even with all this out there, the story was dying a death unto Toto Wolff chose to intervene but it seems he had taken the bait his arch rival had laid out for him a week earlier.
The Red Bull boss had appeared on Sky’s satirical programme “A league of their own” and was asked about the showdown in Abu Dhabi back in 2021. There the FIA race director decided to withdraw the safety car and allow one last lap of racing, which caught Mercedes out and cost Hamilton his chorused eight championship.
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“I mean Mercedes f***ed up,” Horner had said.
“They left poor Lewis out there on tyres that had done pretty much most of the race and we pitted with Max so he was on a fresh set of tyres.
“Max made the move and the interesting thing was where Max passed him it caught Lewis completely by surprise.”
Whilst Horner’s analysis of the 2021 events makes sense after the event, at the time Mercedes would have hoped that by leaning Hamilton out, his position ahead on the track was more valuable than a set of new tyres.
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Wolff believes in “enemy building”
The gamble failed and Verstappen won his first world title. Yet clearly it seems Toto Wolff has suffered long and hard from being beaten by Red Bull and to this day cannot let go his vitriol which he focuses on Christian Horner.
PlanetF1 asked Wolff whether he enjoys the feuding rivalry between himself and Horner and the Mercedes boss was categoric in his reply.
“Not rivalry,” he said. “I believe in enemy building and in looking at people that motivate you, annoy you, that you want to beat.
“I encourage everybody in the company to find out who that is, in the other teams. Spend some time on LinkedIn. See who it is. I have two windows that are permanently open on my laptop.”
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Toto refuses to name Horner
Then bizarrely Wolff appeared to withdraw maybe realising he appeared somewhat obsessive. When asked who the “enemy” might be, he meekly replied:
“It’s no one from Formula 1.”
After two days of ‘he said, she said’ its probable Horner was poking the bear to get a rise out of Lewis Hamilton’s apparently lack of loyalty to his Mercedes team – and it clearly worked.
The Mercedes star had claimed during the lengthy contract negotiations with Wolff that he was not speaking to any other teams following the Italian media claiming he had talks with Ferrari.
Horner referred to this stating: “He[Lewis] met John Elkann [Ferrari chairman] too. I think there were serious talks. It was around Monaco [in May]. There were definitely conversations, perhaps with Vasseur [Ferrari team principal] too. But certainly with Elkann.”
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The Ferrari team principle Fred Vasseur also denies having held talks with Hamilton, but this again would be natural to protect the feelings and motivation of his current drivers.
Hamilton and his team mate George Russell eventually signed new contracts to keep them at Mercedes until the end of 2025 and Russell will be keen to end the season on parity with Lewis in the qualifying head to head.
Currently Lewis leads this battle 11-10 with just one qualifying session left on Saturday in Abu Dhabi.
Mercedes too are in a the fight with the resurgent Ferrari who have in recent weeks had there better of the inter-team battle and are now just four points behind the silver arrows in the chase for P2 in the constructors’ championship – worth some extra $20m in prize money and a factor in ow much bones the factory based staff will get this year.
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Isn’t this just stirring the pot more for a weak story, in simple terms non of you speculators know the truth. By the way it’s “Anthony Hamilton” who is father to Lewis Hamilton not the superb accurate journalist Maurice who in his senior years would probably like this accreditation but has very white skin!
Of course there are some common factors here that take any steam out of the story, Ferrari all along denied talking to Lewis or Anthony other than a conversation with Elkan at an event in the States that Lewis Hamilton was open about. Fred Vasseur pointed to the absurdity of the thought. Oh and there it is Christian Horner was shown to be behind the story, then the story about going to Red Bull, firstly Horner again being the tittle tattle stirrer that he is makes a bland statement about how he had spoken to Lewis Hamilton, who even if he had would deny it and if he hadn’t would never be able to deny it. Point being Horner has long lost any integrity and cannot see how he is the only one he has damaged by starting a School style rumour.
Then we have what you state as Toto Wolfs hatred of Red Bull and Horner which anyone who watched the 2021 season can see was started by, you guessed it Christian Horners self integrity destructive foul mouthed expletive filled vitriol filled season long tantrum against a team they were competing very well against but not quite dominating. Wolf reacted at first then in front of camera apologised for letting his own guard down when only once did he retaliate, Horners reaction was a squirming wimpy comment that convinced no one. We all saw how the last race was fixed by the FIA breaking their own flippant rules.
Lastly in this anyone old enough will know how the Daily and Sunday Mail twist the truth of something into dishonest stories and open lies for a good sale. Be it Rod Stewart being gay or F1 fantasy tales or Political discredit of MP’s we’ve seen it since before WW2 and they’ve not changed, so here’s a rumour that likely has more truth than lie Christian Horner might be alleged to be reporting via this paper. Just another iffy fact in another series of non stories.