CHRISTIAN HORNER has snapped back at Jos Verstappen’s criticism of Red Bull’s high–profile departures.
The Red Bull chief’s arch-nemesis and dad of Max Verstappen recently said he had warned the team about staff exits.
At the start of the season Jos said that the team would “explode” if Horner remained in charge after news broke of his sexting scandal with a colleague.
He was cleared by Red Bull and always denied the claims.
Since then design guru Adrian Newey, sporting director Jonathan Wheatley and strategy chief Will Courtenay have all departed.
Horner said: “Adrian has been on the brink of retiring for 10 years so we had to be prepared for that and I believe we’ve got strength and depth.
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“He’s chosen to continue and continue elsewhere. And of course, Jonathan, likewise, a long-term member, but they’re two more higher-profile names.
“The reality is that’s just two people out of 2000 people that we have within the group.”
Red Bull toasted the most dominant F1 season ever last year with a record 21 out of 22 races won.
But they are currently on a eight-race winless streak, their worst run of form since 2020.
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McLaren have now overtaken Red Bull at the top of the constructors’ standings while Lando Norris trails Verstappen – who is winless in eight races – by 52 points with six races left.
Horner is feeling the heat from the team’s mass exodus, and has also aimed a dig at Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
The Red Bull chief said his team had poached “over 200 staff” from Mercedes.
He added: “We’ve recruited, I think, close to 250 people during the last 12 months, across the project, into powertrains, into the brand new engine shop that we’re building.
“We don’t talk about the over 200 people we’ve bought from Mercedes.
“There’s a lot of focus on the two people that are leaving, because they’re slightly more public facing.”
Back in May, Horner also clapped back at McLaren chief Zak Brown who told the media he had seen a stream of CV’s from Red Bull landing on his desk after the news of Newey’s departure.
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He said: “I don’t know how many people we or RB have employed from McLaren this year,
“We have taken 220 people out of [Mercedes] HPP into Red Bull Powertrains. So, when we are talking about losing people, I would be a bit more worried about the 220 than maybe one or two CVs.”
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Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
