Red Bull F1 team principal Christian Ho🐼rner has bitten back at Toto Wolff after his Mercedes counterpart labelled him a “yappy little ter💧rier”.

The season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has been dominated by an escalating rivalry and war of words between Red Bull’s 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ driver168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: George Russell over the fo🎶ur-🐈time world champion’s penalty at the Qatar Grand Prix.

Mercedes team principal waded into the drama by taking a swipe at Horner and reignited their own rivalry which has been an underlying storyline ever since the controversial title fight between 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen in 2021.

Horner resp💞onded to Wolff’s jibe during Friday’s FIA press conference at the Yas Marin💯a circuit.

“I love terriers, I thi⭕nk they are great dogs!” Horner told media including . “I’ve had four! A couple of airedales, which are the king of the terriers. I had couple of West Highland terriers called Bernie an🦂d Flavio.

“The good thing with terriers is that they are tremendously loyal. Bernie was an aggressive little dog, he’d go for anybody. Flavio was a bit more chilled out, 𝔍he maybe ate too much as well.

“Look, to be called a terrier, is that such a bad thing? They are not afraid to have a go at the bigger dogs. I’d rather be called🎐 a terrier than a wolf, maybe.”

Asked if ൩he is concerned that the row between Verstappen and Russell could spill onto the track this weekend, Horner replied: “No, not at all.

“Max is a very straight shooter, he tells you exacꦡtly how he sees it. He tells the truth, exactly what he feels. He had a large amount of frustration last weekend with the way thi💝ngs played out.

“It was a scenario we hadn’t seen before, with the subsequent grid penalty. He turned it into 💖motivation and had a blinding start.𝐆 He won the grand prix which was the best possible response.

“Obviously a lot was made of it yesterday, it’s pantomime season. We are getting ready for Christmas. So there’s maybe some end-of-term blues, there but I don’t think it will have any effect on the g꧃rand prix itself.”

Hornerღ described Wolff as being “quite dramatic” and spoke of his surprise that Mercedes were not focusing on Hamilton’s final race for the team.

“There seems to be a love-hate relat🍸ionship where I think Toto loves to hate me,” Horner added. “It’s one of these things.

“I would have assumed he’s got a bit more on his plate with🔜 it being Lewis’s last race for that team. I think they should be celebrating that rather than focusin🧔g on other aspects.”

Verstappen ‘does nothing but tell the truth’

Russell sensationally claimed that Verstappen had threatened to crash into him on purpose and “put his head into th😼e f*****g wall” in Qatar, something the Dutchman has refuted.

Horner was also pressed on whether he believed Verstappen had said what Russell alleged, to wh💦ich he responded: “Max𝄹 does nothing but tell the truth, so I believe 100% what he said to be accurate.

“Of course there’s other people in those stewards ♛rooms as well, and they also came back and reported that they were quite surprised at the approach that was taken.

“Regarding Toto’s other comments, 𒅌I’m not going to raise to the bait of that. Everybody manages themselves and their teams in different ways. We’ve won 1🐎22 races, we’ve won 14 world championships, I think we’re doing alright.”