Christian Horner has told George Russell to ‘worry about other issues’ after the Mercedes star called out an alleged exodus of Red Bull staff after Max Verstappen’s radio outbursts at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Russell made claims about the team morale within Verstappen’s garage during a sensational rant at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December.
The Brit took aim at the four-time world champion after the Red Bull ace accused him of being ‘two-faced’, altering his stance between the stewards’ room and the media pen at the Qatar Grand Prix.
“I’m not questioning his driving abilities one single bit, but the second he does not have the fastest car, let’s take Budapest as an example, he crashes into Lewis, he slams his whole team, and he loses the plot,” Russell stated.
“Straight away after that race, 25 per cent of his engineering team were sending their CVs to Mercedes, to McLaren, to Aston Martin, because they said they can’t deal with a guy like that.”
However, the Red Bull team principal has taken issue with Russell’s statistics, rebuffing any concerns about an exodus from the No.1 team’s garage.
The Milton Keynes squad have lost key men in Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley, but Horner is not worried about the ebb and flow of employees in and out of the team.
"I'd be more worried about other issues if I was George," Horner said. "I don't know where he thinks and who he thinks they were offering their services to, but all the key people have made long-term commitments to the company.
"If you look at people like [Gianpiero Lambiase] and the key members of the engineering team, they are all on long-term contracts.
One of the less pleasant sides of the business is the lengths that will be gone to try and capitalise on other issues in other teams.
"You have to remember that we came off a season where we didn't just dominate, but we annihilated the opposition in 2023 and won 22 of 23 races.
I've said it before, but the higher you rise, the sharper the knives.
“And they got pretty sharp at some points during 2024. But when there is so much at stake, other teams will use whatever tools they have to try and destabilise what has been a hugely successful team."
