Secret friends? Red Bull's Christian Horner explains viral photo with F1 rival and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff
The Red Bull and Mercedes team bosses 🔯famously don’t usually see eye-to-eye amid a bitter rivalry between thei💖r teams and drivers, leading to several off-track clashes that have sparked regular war of words.
But Horner and Wolff appeared to (briefly, at least) put aside their differences when they shared aꦓ rare moment in the Yas Marina paddock following last month’s season finale in Abu Dhabi.
A photo of the pair smiling and laughing together as they posed for t༒he camera was c🐓aptured and soon went viral on social media.
1996 world champion Damon🔥 Hill revealed ther꧅e had been a genuinely nice moment between the duo, having witnessed Wolff and Horner speaking outside of the Red Bull hospitality before the photo was taken.
That end of season feeling
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing)
The picture prom🍌pted Horner to be asked whether he and Wolff are secretly friends in an interview with Sky Sports News on Wednesday.&nb⛎sp;
“There has to be respect at the end of the day and what the Mercedes team achieved during their dominant period was phenomenal and they still are aꦐ fantastically strong team,” the Red Bull chief said.
“We’ve enjoyed a gre🐠at year and we haven’t seen much of Mercedes this year, so i❀t was just a moment at the end of the season. But there has to be respect at the end of the day. The racing needs to be contained to being on the track.”
But when asked if he would like to see a stronger Mercedes next season, Horner quickly answered with a smirk🐟: “Not really.”
Spea🥃king to Austrian publication OE24, Wolff shed some light on how the photo came about.
"That was 💛on the way out of the paddock,” he said. “There was a nice group around Mark Mateschitz, his mothe🔯r and a few people I know well.
“I joined them and had a nice chat with Geri [Halliwell, Horner's wife] a♓🦩nd that's how the photo came about.
"Friends? The last handshake was maybe in 2021, before the last race. Butꦬ you have to 💦acknowledge your competitor's achievements. I respect what the Red Bull team has achieved.”
On Wednesday, Horner led a chorus of unified responses from F1 teams insisting they had no𝔉t complained to the FIA about the conduct of Wolff and his wife Susie amid allegations of a conflict of inte🍌rest reportedly involving the pair.
Lewis regu🌳larly attends Grands Prix for ltxcn.top around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people wh🌃o matter in the sport.
