Christian Horner hits back on Toto Wolff’s ‘lottery number’

Christian Horner insists that Mercedes employees are more tempted to join Red Bull Powertrains than offering a big paycheck.

Toto Wolff recently claimed that Red Bull had bypassed “lottery number” salaries to attract 15 Mercedes employees from their Brixworth headquarters out of around 100 they approached for their new powertrains project.

However, the Red Bull F1 team principal believes that other factors matter to those who have decided to change jobs in Milton Keynes, which is just 30 miles south of Brixworth.

“It wasn’t about waving checks in front of them, but about integration, the ability to be part of a team and not just an engine supplier,” Horner told The Race.

“We were very impressed by that and it was a fundamental reason why we managed to attract this talent.

“Formula 1 is a popular sport and at the end of the day you are as good as your people. We’re going to have a great facility, but we’re going to have more people as part of this project and that’s tremendously exciting and I think that’s what attracts the talent. “

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Mercedes F1 co-owner and team principal Wolff has downplayed the staffing loss at Red Bull by claiming those who made the switch were more involved in the production of the engine than in its performance.

Horner admitted they weren’t going to bring the most prized secrets to what he called “probably the most exciting engineering company to be built in the UK right now” after Honda decided to pull out of Formula One late this year.

“You’re not going to bring any intellectual property with you, but they’ve all been long-time employees at HPP and have made the benchmark engine over the years,” Horner said of the new hires.

“This is fantastic for us. When starting over with a clean sheet of paper, you’ll want to bring in as much talent as possible.

“It’s a different challenge than when I got on the chassis side because the foundation was there for Jaguar and then it came down to identifying the weak points and fixing them while this is a perfectly clean piece of paper.

“It’s easier in many ways because you can create the structure you want and fully integrate it.

“The whole purpose is to connect it to the chassis side and achieve the associated synergies and cost savings – especially when a budget cap for the powertrain is inevitable.”

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