Horner defiant amid Ferrari staff poaching rumours

Christian Horner insists that there are "no plans" for Red Bull to lose any of their technical team to Formula 1 rivals Ferrari.

Reports have suggested that Ferrari have been looking to lure members of the Red Bull team to Italy to bolster their own technical team.

Tech chief Adrian Newey had been linked prior to signing a new Red Bull contract, whilst key figures Pierre Wache and Enrico Balbo have also been central to the recent rumours.

With Ferrari's Laurent Mekies set to join the Red Bull-backed AlphaTauri team at a date in the future, some reports suggested that Ferrari would look to secure the services of Red Bull engineers as part of the contract release deal.

However, Red Bull Team Principal Horner refuted the idea that Red Bull personnel would be used in negotiations.

"As usual, there's plenty of speculation. Will there be a hostage exchange for Laurent Mekies? Well, we don't have any hostages," Horner told media, including RacingNews365.com.

"So in terms of personnel moving to Ferrari, certainly at a senior or intermediate levels there's nothing planned.

"Individuals that have been mentioned in connection with Ferrari came to see me last week and mentioned their disbelief in some of these rumours.

"But it's Formula One, that will inevitably happen, but there's no plans for any senior members of our team to be joining Maranello."