Horner fires back after Wolff's 'p***ed off' admission

Christian Horner has fired back at Toto Wolff after the Mercedes Formula 1 team boss admitted he is "p***ed off" by Max Verstappen's dominance.

Reigning double World Champion Verstappen crushed the field in the Spanish Grand Prix, recording his first Grand Chelem of the season in Barcelona, finishing 24 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton, although Mercedes showed a good turn of pace with their new W14 upgrades.

Wolff admitted on Saturday that Verstappen's dominance - having won 20 of the 29 races in the ground effects era, and 14 of the last 18 including the Spanish GP - had "p***ed him off."

But Horner has responded by saying "losing hurts" and that he doesn't pay too much attention to what is said.

Horner fires back at Wolff

"I don't pay a great deal of attention to it," Horner told media including RacingNews365.com.

"What matters is the score sheet at the end of the day, and that's looking pretty healthy.

"We spent seven years trying to get into a winning position, and losing hurts.

"We've worked very hard to get into this position, I think the whole team as a unit, and not just Max, is operating at such a high level and we have a phenomenal car.

"We've got two great drivers and Max is just continuing to evolve as a driver, he's just become more and more polished and the capacity he has within the car is truly impressive."

Change since 2016

Victory in Barcelona was the 40th of Verstappen's career, seven years on from his win on debut for the team in the famous race where Hamilton and Nico Rosberg collided on the first lap for Mercedes.

When asked to point out the biggest change in Verstappen in the intervening years, Horner pointed an example from the Spanish GP weekend involving Helmut Marko's phone.

"In 2016, he was very raw, incredibly fast and hugely and naturally talented," he said.

"He still has that natural speed and tremendous ability but what he has now is the experience and roundedness.

"The capacity that he has, when he's recognising Helmut Marko's phone ringing within the car, he's just got this added bandwidth that puts him at another level.

"The exciting thing about him is that he's still getting better."