{"id":108085,"date":"2025-08-31T04:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T04:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/108085\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T04:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T04:31:08","slug":"toto-wolff-adjusting-to-the-absence-of-former-red-bull-team-principal-christian-horner-dutch-grand-prix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/108085\/","title":{"rendered":"Toto Wolff adjusting to the absence of former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner; Dutch Grand Prix"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toto Wolff<\/a> is still adjusting to the absence of his “great enemy” and former Red Bull<\/a> team principal Christian Horner<\/a> in the paddock as the teams prepare for the Dutch Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

The pair shared one of the most bitter rivalries in the paddock over the years, but it has since come to an abrupt end due to the departure of Horner at Red Bull Racing.<\/p>\n

For 20 years, Horner held the dual positions of team principal and chief executive at Red Bull Racing but he was dismissed of both duties<\/a> in July.<\/p>\n

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The frosty feud he shared with Wolff captivated all in the F1 sphere, with tensions reaching their peak in 2021 when Red Bull’s Max Verstappen<\/a> and then Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton battled for the world driver championship title.<\/p>\n

Wolff revealed that although he does not see Horner on a regular basis in the paddock anymore, the pair have exchanged private messages since his sacking.<\/p>\n

“What are you doing now? Because you love to hate me and I’m gone,” Horner wrote in a message Wolff revealed to reporters at the Circuit Zandvoort.<\/p>\n

\"Toto<\/p>\n

Toto Wolff and Christian Horner on the grid during the Abu Dhabi GP in 2021.\u00a0LAT Images<\/p>\n

“We didn’t often have the same opinion or perspective,” Wolff continued.<\/p>\n

“He’s been a wonderful, great enemy over the years. Am I missing him? It’s quite strange to come here and Christian’s not going to be around.<\/p>\n

“I mean, what are you doing with him not around? That’s a bit weird. And then you have the pragmatism of Laurent Mekies.<\/p>\n

“Suddenly you can have a conversation about the long term. We’re just totally different people, but even your biggest enemy is your best friend.”<\/p>\n

While the feuds seemingly are now more focused on the drivers, Woolf admitted he does miss having a divisive character around the paddock.<\/p>\n

“Everyone movie needs the good, the bad and the ugly,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The sport needs that. In the past we had those massive characters and I hope that some of the new team principals are going to grow into those roles in an authentic way because you can not fake it.<\/p>\n

“Christian was one of those protagonists. He was outspoken, he was controversial, he was an ass and he loved to play that role. You need an asshole, people need to hate someone.” <\/p>\n

The Dutch Grand Prix will commence at 11pm AEST on Sunday, with Australia’s Oscar Piastri claiming pole position in the McLaren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toto Wolff is still adjusting to the absence of his “great enemy” and former Red Bull team principal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-108085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}