{"id":72549,"date":"2026-02-01T16:56:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T19:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automotive.einnews.com\/article\/888481211"},"modified":"2026-02-01T16:56:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T19:56:40","slug":"christian-horner-admits-real-truth-about-toto-wolff-f1-rivalry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/01\/christian-horner-admits-real-truth-about-toto-wolff-f1-rivalry\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Horner admits real truth about Toto Wolff F1 rivalry"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Axed Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner<\/a> has opened up about his rivalry with arch nemesis Toto Wolff<\/a>.
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\nWolff and Horner were long-time team principal rivals at Mercedes<\/a> and Red Bull respectively, fighting for several world championship titles and constantly looking to get ahead of one another.\n<\/p>\n

\nThat rivalry was arguably at its most heated during the 2021 season, when Lewis Hamilton<\/a> and Max Verstappen<\/a> from the opposing teams battled hard for the drivers’ championship, with Red Bull and Verstappen eventually coming out on top.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut Horner and Wolff’s war of words continued on beyond then, despite Red Bull going on to dominate the sport with Mercedes lagging behind post 2021.\n<\/p>\n

\nThat was until Horner was axed from his position as Red Bull team principal<\/a> after 20 years last July, following a period of poor performance for the Milton Keynes-based outfit.\n<\/p>\n

\nNow, in his first public appearance since that sacking, Horner has spoken about his rivalry with Wolff, who is still in his position as Mercedes team principal.\n<\/p>\n

“A lot of people made a lot out of the rivalry I had with him. I have a huge amount of respect for him,” Horner told The Independent<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

“He has been tremendously successful, he has won a huge amount. He is very bright. We are just different people, equally competitive, just different. And sport is boring if everybody is friendly and loves each other.\n<\/p>\n

“You have got to have a rivalry that will create a real interest. The worst thing is if everyone is too nicey-nicey and chummy.”\n<\/p>\n

\nREAD MORE:<\/b> Red Bull star set to reveal all after axe<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Horner move to Alpine on the cards?<\/h2>\n

\nThe off-season has been dominated by talk of Horner returning to F1, and it has emerged that he is negotiating with Alpine.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\nHorner has suggested that he wants more of a team ownership role if he opts to return to F1, but also told the Independent that he wants it to be at a ‘winning’ team.\n<\/p>\n

\nInitially, Horner was linked to a purchase of the 24 per cent stake in Alpine owned by Otro Capital, that consortium comprised of A-List names such as Ryan Reynolds.\n<\/p>\n

\nAlpine team chief Flavio Briatore<\/a> confirmed that Horner was in talks to buy that stake during Alpine’s 2026 car launch, and said: “I\u2019ve known Christian for many years, I talk with Christian anyway, but this has nothing to do with me.\n<\/p>\n

“First, you need to buy Otro, and after Renault<\/a> needs to accept the buyer, and after we see what happens. But it has no link with me because he is negotiating with Otro, not negotiating with us.”\n<\/p>\n

\nDuring an appearance on Sky Sports Germany’s podcast Backstage Boxengasse<\/a>, pundit Ralf Schumacher said about the potential Horner-Alpine link-up: “So, from what I\u2019ve heard, it\u2019s already been decided, but not before the middle or autumn of next year.”\n<\/p>\n

\nF1 HEADLINES:<\/b> Hamilton is back in P1 as Ferrari team-mate rings alarm bells<\/a><\/p>\n

Related<\/h3>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Axed Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner has opened up about his rivalry with arch nemesis Toto Wolff. Wolff and Horner were long-time team principal rivals at Mercedes and Red Bull respectively, fighting for several world championship titles and constantly …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}