Toto Wolff, Mercedes Formula 1 boss, rejected his counterpart at Red Bull, Christian Horner, claims of snatching 200 technical members from Mercedes.
Latter claims that his team had managed to get around 200 people from Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains unit to Red Bull Powertrains.
Earlier Mercedes and McLaren had commented on Red Bull’s designer, Andrian Newey, departure. Zak Brown, McLaren CEO, believes that Newey “won’t be the last domino” to leave from the team and it might continue.
Horner shot back at the suggestion and claims that his engine division has attracted huge manpower from both Mercedes and McLaren. He claims to acquire 220 people from Mercedes HPP in Brixworth.
“I don’t know how many people we or RB have employed from McLaren this year,” said Horner. “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.”
Mercedes, on the other hand contested the numbers. Wolff claims that RB only managed a tenth of the number.
“You have got to work on the maths – 19 engineers,” Wolff said in Imola.
“Whatever those numbers are, there are natural fluctuations that come and go, which is completely normal.”
Upcoming regulatory changes had shaken the market which will put huge emphasis on hybrid component of power unit. Recently, the number of engine manufacturer has increased from four to six. It made the F1 engine market extremely competitive.
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Two big companies, Red Bull and new entrant Audi went on the recruiting drive as both are bidding to build highly competitive engines.
However, Wolff claims his Brixworth team is in great position to provide engine benchmark. The team is working on similar grounds to 2014 to gain high advantage over other manufacturers.
“We have an engine department which is as good as it can be with a top leadership,” Wolff insisted.
“There is not a millimetre that I wish would be different in terms of organisational set-up, in terms of the people that work there that I am lucky to interact with. It is just a perfect organisation and you can see they are delivering, and they have delivered for a long time.
“Since 2014, we have been pretty much the benchmark, or with another engine maybe, the benchmark. That hasn’t changed.
“I really can’t wait for 2026 to come and see the different levels of performance of the power units.”
