Wolff rejects Horner’s claims that Red Bull has recruited over 200 Mercedes staff
The boss of the Mercedes team, Toto Wolff, has rejected Christian Horner's claims that Red Bull Powertrains has poached more than 200 members of staff from Mercedes HPP.
During the Miami Grand Prix, Christian Horner reacted to Mercedes and McLaren’s suggestions that Red Bull would be weakened by the departure of Adrian Newey. He stated that their new engine division, Red Bull Powertrains, had poached up to 220 people from Mercedes High Performance Powertrains in Brixworth.
We have taken 220 people from [Mercedes] HPP to Red Bull Powertrains. So, when we talk about losing people, I would be a little more worried about the 220 than a few CVs.
But Mercedes strongly contested these figures, Toto Wolff stating that the actual figure is only a tenth of that. We need to revisit the math, Wolff said at Imola. Whatever these figures are, there are natural fluctuations that come and go, which is completely normal.
Before the regulatory changes in 2026, which will further emphasize the hybrid component of the power unit, the job market for engine experts was extremely competitive, with the number of manufacturers increasing from four to six.
In addition to Red Bull’s decision to build its own engines, which required a massive investment in the RBPT division of its Milton Keynes campus, the new entrant Audi has also launched a recruitment campaign as the German manufacturer prepares to produce its first custom-made F1 engines.
But Wolff insists that his team is in the best possible position to continue to be a reference, having taken a lead in 2014 with the first iteration of hybrid power units before others caught up. “We have an engine department that is as good as possible with top management,” he insists.
« There is not a millimeter that I would like to see different in terms of organization, in terms of the people who work there and whom I have the chance to interact with. It is simply a perfect organization and you can see that they deliver, and they have delivered for a long time. Since 2014, we have been practically the benchmark, or maybe with another engine, the benchmark. That has not changed. I am really looking forward to 2026 and seeing the different levels of performance of the power units. »
