Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has recently wished for a premature exit of his arch-rival and Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner. Speaking about it ahead of this week’s Miami Grand Prix, the Austrian said the move will make his life easier.
The Mercedes team principal was accompanied by Horner and AlphaTauri’s boss Franz Tost in the press conference leading up to the race. As the trio took to the center stage, the 51-year-old asked who was the longest-standing team principal in F1 at the moment.
Toto asked whether Franz Tost or Christian Horner is the longest standing team principal and Horner replied that it‘s him.
Toto: “So you are next in line to go.
Would make life easier.”— tami. (@Vetteleclerc) May 5, 2023
Answering his Silver Arrows rival, Horner said it was him. Hearing this, Wolff joked as per temi on Twitter, “So you are next in line to go. Would make life easier.” This has come after Tost recently decided to part ways with AlphaTauri at the end of the season.
Franz Tost has been a long-standing team principal of Red Bull’s sister team from the day of its inception. From 2006 to till date, Franz has been in charge of the team, until now, when he has decided to walk away.
Why Toto Wolff joked about life getting easier?
Wolff and Horner have been sharing a decade-long rivalry in Formula 1. Ever since the Austrian arrived in Mercedes back in 2014, the duo has been locking horns.
As the balance of power shifted from Red Bull to Mercedes in 2014 and back a few years later, the relationship between them reached a boiling point on multiple occasions.
From Wolff slamming Horner to keep his head down and work things out back in 2014, to Horner giving it back to Wolff and asking him to change his “f*cking car,” they were always up against each other. Hence, it was natural for a rival to hope for an early departure, even though it was meant as a joke.
Christian Horner took another dig at Wolff recently
As the duo was attending the press conference ahead of the big Miami GP race, the discussion among them was to manage two drivers when they [Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez] are battling for a driver’s championship.
The 51-year-old, who had this experience with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in Mercedes earlier, revealed his take on how to handle the situation. He said in Silver Arrows, there was a lot of transparency and clarity.
As the Billionaire boss finished with his expertise, the 49-year-old took a slight dig at him. Christian Horner called it their “luxury” problem and said, as per The Express, “We do everything that Toto says but just better.”
