“We’ve recruited people from Mercedes”- Christian Horner has no idea if snatching away Mercedes staff has affected Red Bull’s rival team

Red Bull snatched a considerable amount of Mercedes staff when it took over Honda’s engine project at the end of 2021.

With Red Bull taking over Honda’s intellectual property i.e their engine, the team snatched away a fair number of employees from Mercedes. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko thinks that this might have had an impact on their rivals, but team principal Christian Horner has no idea if that is the case.

Honda announced an official exit from the F1 at the end of 2021 but it agreed to assist Red Bull in the engine development. While Honda has continued to produce, assemble, maintain and support the engine, it has come out on the track known as “Red Bull powertrains.”

Asked by Sky Sports if he thinks the snatching of Mercedes personnel has had any effect on the rival team, Horner said, “I have no idea. We’re looking to bring in the best people, and we’ve recruited people from Mercedes, from all the other manufacturers, as well as many manufacturers outside of F1.”

Also Read: Toto Wolff appalled at how Mercedes has gone from being 8-times world champion to markedly behind Ferrari and Red Bull

Mercedes is lagging behind

Horner made no comments on the Mercedes staff that the Milton-Keynes based team has hired. As per him, the main focus of the Red Bull F1 team is to create a hub of technical excellence.

The team wants to use its workforce to create a brilliant chassis and engine and Horner is not concerned if that has had an impact on their rivals.

Given the results of the first two races of the season, it seems as though Red Bull has taken a step in the right direction. Both the Red Bull cars stood at the front of the grid with current leader Ferrari and had a brilliant battle over the victory.

While it faced some problems with the fuel pump in the first race in Bahrain and both the cars retired, the second race worked out in the team’s favour.

Max Verstappen took the victory in Saudi Arabia beating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Meanwhile, Mercedes is struggling with its new W13.

As the season took off, Red Bull and Ferrari were seen battling at the top but Mercedes found it difficult to get to the top.

The Brackley-based team’s star driver Lewis Hamilton had a major fallout in the qualifying in Saudi Arabia. He got eliminated in Q3 and struggled to bring it to P10 on the race day.

Also Read: George Russell expects a similar struggle for Mercedes at the Australian GP