Wolff offers full support to Brown over Red Bull CV saga

Toto Wolff has voiced his agreement with Zak Brown over comments the McLaren Racing CEO made about CVs "flying everywhere" following Adrian Newey's shock resignation from Red Bull.

The American suggested his team had seen in influx of CVs being sent to it from employees of the Milton Keynes-based outfit in the wake of the news that the 65-year-old Red Bull chief technical officer would leave his post in early 2025.

Now, the Mercedes team principal has concurred with Brown, whilst also implying that some of those applying for roles are from senior positions.

"Zak is absolutely correct, we are seeing Red Bull CVs through all the levels," Wolff told media including RacingNews365.

Whilst Brown has not traditionally had an as fierce an adversarial relationship with the Red Bull boss, Wolff and Horner's rivalry dates back years.

It reached a climax during the tense championship showdown at the end of the controversial 2021 F1 season, but had become relatively peripheral after Mercedes fell well behind Red Bull the following year, at the start of the contemporary ground-effects era.

'I'm not really interested in what is going on there with the leadership'

With the growing uncertainty at Red Bull, however, Wolff is missing fewer opportunities this year to try and ruffle Horner's feathers, in a bid to add to the instability of the situation.

The Mercedes team principal has made no effort to hid the fact he would like to poach Max Verstappen, even though the Dutch driver is contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2028.

Despite Wolff and Horner's rivalry being at least in part revived, the Austrian did move qualify his agreement with Brown, highlighting that this sort of thing is common-place in F1, and not necessarily anything unusual.

"But I would say that this is nothing out of the ordinary, people change teams, want to change environment, so I've come to the point where I'm not really interested in what is going on there with the leadership, I'm not listening to anything anymore," he said.

"It is important for us to look at our own team, see how we can develop strong people, get some interesting, competent people from other teams into Mercedes, and provide them with an exciting journey to recovery."