Horner hands Russell firm advice after Red Bull jibe

Christian Horner has told George Russell to "be worried about other issues" after a jibe from the Mercedes driver towards Red Bull.

At the end of 2024 as a war of words developed between Russell and Max Verstappen in Abu Dhabi, Russell claimed that "25 per cent of his engineering team were sending their CVs to Mercedes, to McLaren to Aston Martin" following Verstappen's meltdown in Hungary. 

In Budapest, Verstappen swore and lashed out at the team for a perceived poor strategy and incidents earlier in the race as he laboured to fifth place, although he would ultimately win the title at season's end.

Red Bull has lost chief technical officer Adrian Newey, sporting director Jonathan Wheatley, and chief designer Rob Marshall in recent times, but Horner believes Russell should keep focused on addressing Mercedes' own problems.

"I'd be more worried about other issues if I was George," Horner told select media including RacingNews365. 

"I don't know where he thinks and who he thinks they were offering their services to, but all the key people have made long-term commitments to the company.

"If you look at people like [Gianpiero Lambiase], and the key members of the engineering team, they are all on long-term contracts. 

"One of the less pleasant sides of the business is the lengths that will be gone to try and capitalise on other issues in other teams.

"You have to remember that we came off a season where we didn't just dominate, but we annihilated the opposition in 2023, and won 22 of 23 races. 

"I've said it before, but the higher you rise, the sharper the knives, and they got pretty sharp at some points during 2024.

"But when there is so much at stake, other teams will use whatever tools they have to try and destabilise what has been a hugely successful team."