Hamilton-Red Bull: Horner’s ‘backstory’
The eve of the last weekend of the 2023 world championship has reignited the spirits and some tension between two rival teams such as Mercedes and Red Bull, with the Team Principal of the latter Christian Hornerwho in an interview with Daily Mailone had declared interest of Lewis Hamilton’s entourage about the possibility of bringing English to Milton Keynes. A version of events contested by the seven-time world champion, who denied what happened, believing, on the contrary, that it had been the same Red Bull to contact #44 for a role as Max Verstappen’s new teammate for 2024 before ‘Sir Lewis’ renewed with Mercedes.
Hamilton, not just Red Bull
According to Horner, the contacts took place in May close to the Monaco Grand Prix, also confirming other negotiations between Hamilton and the Ferrari, which at that time of year had actually sparked numerous rumors about a possible future for the Briton in Maranello. The fact remains that, regardless of how things actually went, the Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff he was amazed by the statements of his Red Bull counterpart, with whom numerous controversies had already erupted in the past, especially after the controversial final of the 2021 world championship.
Wolff’s explanation
In a meeting with the media, Wolff explained what happened as follows: “We don’t understand what goes through his head to do these things – he has declared – what happened is that Christian, through an agency we work with, wanted to have contact to talk about the seat. This is how it happened: Christian inquired about Lewis’ availability. It wasn’t a place, it was just ‘blah’. I saw it. So I don’t know what drives him to do these things.”
The ‘construction of the enemy’
Commenting on the rivalry between Mercedes and Red Bull, in addition to his own with Horner, Wolff then explained his leadership mentality which includes a particular philosophy, which he wanted to extend to all the men in his team: “They won the season, be happy, be humble and enjoy it. I believe in building the enemy and in finding people who motivate you, who annoy you, who you want to beat – he added – I’ve encouraged everyone in the company to find out who’s on other teams. Spend some time on LinkedIn and see who they are: I have two windows always open on my laptop, and there is no one from Formula 1“.
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