{"id":89730,"date":"2025-08-24T15:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T15:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/89730\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T15:04:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T15:04:11","slug":"toto-wolff-brands-christian-horner-an-ahole-in-reflection-of-f1-rivalry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/89730\/","title":{"rendered":"Toto Wolff brands Christian Horner an ‘a**hole’ in reflection of F1 rivalry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mercedes<\/a> boss Toto Wolff has branded his old Formula 1<\/a> adversary Christian Horner<\/a> an \u201ca**hole\u201d in an assessment of their longstanding personal rivalry.<\/p>\n

Horner\u2019s dismissal by Red Bull<\/a> in July brought to an end the 51-year-old\u2019s 20-year spell in F1, having led the Milton Keynes-based squad since its inception.<\/p>\n

It also closed a chapter on one of the most fraught and public displays of verbal warfare between two Team Principals in the sport\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Horner and Wolff\u2019s rivalry often conveyed a genuine mutual disliking, amid Red Bull and the German marque\u2019s on-track battle for supremacy.<\/p>\n

Even right up to the end of Horner\u2019s tenure, the pair could often be the subject of a verbal jousting, with Wolff blasting Red Bull\u2019s protest of George Russell\u2019s victory in Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When asked to sum up Horner and his time in F1, the Austrian told Formula.hu: \u201cWhat do I think [of Horner]?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that over the last 12-15 years, he has often behaved like an asshole.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe operates according to completely different values, but even the greatest enemy has a best friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the other hand, he was extremely successful in what he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that he\u2019s gone, at least for a while, a real personality has left the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was controversial and divisive, but he was one of the main characters here. We can safely say that he was as significant as a great driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at it purely from an F1 perspective, I don\u2019t think there are many old-style team boss dinosaurs left here.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe just me. Maybe Fred [Vasseur, Ferrari team principal] is a bit of a dinosaur too!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TotoToto Wolff said his rivalry with Christian Horner sometimes matched the on-track rivalry of its drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, in 2021<\/p>\n

Wolff and Horner rivalry matched Hamilton and Verstappen\u2019s<\/p>\n

The pair\u2019s contentious relationship came to a head in 2021, when their respective drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, conducted one of the most gripping Drivers\u2019 Championship battles of all-time.<\/p>\n

Verstappen, of course, came out on top at the season finale in Abu Dhabi, under controversial circumstances via a late Safety Car.<\/p>\n

Whilst the Dutchman and the seven-time champion were the main protagonists, the two team bosses played their own role in the drama, too.<\/p>\n

Asked if his rivalry with Horner might have been, at times, as memorable as their drivers\u2019 battles, Wolff replied: \u201cYes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at it, it really has always been an interesting story.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose years, but especially 2021, weren\u2019t just about Max and Lewis, but also about Christian and me.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s more, it was really difficult at times \u2013 and that\u2019s in every history book and always will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolff concluded and he might have to find himself a new rival, intimating that his own existence in F1 may not be as fun without Horner.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe always said that I loved to hate him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo who should I hate now? It looks like I\u2019ll have to find someone else\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 Red Bull\u2019s F1 rivals regard Laurent Mekies as \u2018perfect\u2019 Christian Horner successor<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has branded his old Formula 1 adversary Christian Horner an \u201ca**hole\u201d in an assessment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1687,372,6537,44846,6964,7385,101,56,54,55,11941],"class_list":["post-89730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-horner","tag-mercedes","tag-redbull","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wolff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}