‘Behave like actors’ – Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes boss Wolff slams Red Bull rival Horner as F1 title race hots up

TOTO WOLFF has taken a pop at Red Bull boss Christian Horner by accusing him of “behaving like an actor”.

The Mercedes boss and Horner are frequently at loggerheads and exchange comments in public.

Horner recently suggested the Austrian was coming under a “different type of pressure” as Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton battle Red Bull and their driver, Max Verstappen, for the title.

But Wolff says the behaviour of his opposite number, particularly on the popular F1 show, ‘Drive to Survive’, has him marked down as a “protagonist in a pantomime”.

“What Christian says about me feeling pressure — no, not at all,” Wolff told the Daily Mail.

“I feel he is one of the protagonists in a pantomime, part of the Formula One cast, and for me as a stakeholder, as a team owner, it’s great that he creates these kinds of stories.

“But it’s irrelevant. People have a microphone in front of them or a camera on them and they start to behave like little actors, like Hollywood.

“It’s very good that they fill in the blanks and make it pantomime. That’s good for the sport and good for Netflix because they want to portray the people, not just the stopwatch.

“People have realised they are being quoted if they say controversial things. It gives them media time, it gets their picture in the newspapers.

“In many ways, we are going back to our roots because what Bernie Ecclestone created back in the day was racing and soap.

“And when there was not enough racing he made soap, he was always good for a headline. So we’re back there.

“But I don’t get drawn into it. I find it amusing, but it doesn’t touch me.

“Look, I’ve had so many hard years in my life that this — fighting for a Formula One championship — is not on the scale.”

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Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk