Formula 1 with humor: Red Bull team boss Christian Horner counters Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff’s verbal attack with humor: “I’d rather be a terrier than a wolf!”
Christian Horner reacted with humor to Toto Wolff’s verbal attack, who loosely translated it as a “little, barking calf biter” in Abu Dhabi on Thursday. When asked whether it annoys him to be attacked like that by the Mercedes team boss, the Red Bull team boss replies with a grin on his face: “I love terriers! They’re great dogs.”
You have to know: Wolff actually called Horner a “little terrier”, but in order to convey the quote into German as best as possible, our editorial team used the word “Wadenbeißer” as a translation. And: Terrier comes from the root word “Terra”, i.e. earth, and from a purely linguistic point of view it refers to animals that are suitable as hunting dogs for hunting the game that lives in dens. At least that’s what it says in the dictionary.
At the FIA press conference, Horner, apparently highly amused by Wolff’s attack, said that he has four terriers himself, two Airedales and two West Highland terriers, “called Bernie and Flavio. Bernie is an aggressive little dog. He hunts just follows everyone. And Flavio is a little more chilled out. He lies around a lot and probably eats a little too much.”
Horner and the dogs: Using humor to combat unpleasant questions
Horner elegantly evades questions about Wolff’s comments by verbally playing with the character traits of dogs and saying things like: “The nice thing about terriers is that they are extremely loyal.” Or: “Is it so bad to be called a terrier? I’m not afraid of the big dogs. I’d rather be a terrier than a wolf!”
On Thursday, emotions ran high between Horner’s driver Max Verstappen and Mercedes driver George Russell at several media events in Abu Dhabi. At some point Wolff also joined the discussion. The Austrian is particularly bothered by the fact that Horner described Russell as “hysterical” in Qatar. His sentence “How dare you!” made headlines around the world today.
But Horner pretends that leaves him cold: “Toto is quite dramatic, as we know. I wasn’t talking about the psychology of his driver. When I said hysterical I meant more the way George would be in Qatar “The team criticized the team when they gave him the hard tires again even though he had asked for medium, and the words he used to express his displeasure.”
Russell used the words “fucking” and “shit” on the pit radio, among other things. This is tolerated by the FIA on the pit radio in the heat of the moment. But Horner, whose driver Verstappen was already punished for a “fuck” in an FIA PK this year, knows full well: “If I repeat what George said here, I’ll get a penalty!”
“A lot was said yesterday. We know that Toto likes to talk a lot. That’s just how it is. It’s probably high season for the pantomimes, Christmas is slowly approaching. Maybe some people have the blues because it’s coming to an end. We want the season Finish on a positive note, have a great race and see how the boys fight. Hopefully everyone can take a well-deserved break.”
Horner can’t explain where it comes from that there are suddenly vibes of 2021 in the air again when it comes to Red Bull and Mercedes: “There’s obviously a kind of love-hate relationship – Toto loves to hate me! That’s just the way it is . I thought he had enough to do anyway. It’s Lewis’ last race for the team. I think they should celebrate it instead of focusing on other things.”
Rumors of discord at the GPDA dinner
On Friday there was a rumor circulating in the paddock that at the GPDA dinner, which Lewis Hamilton had organized and Valtteri Bottas had paid for, Russell, who was apparently the last to arrive at the location, absolutely did not want to sit in the empty seat next to Verstappen . A story that is obviously not true.
Russell and Verstappen will no longer be friends any time soon. But Horner is not worried that the hostilities between the two could continue on the racetrack in Abu Dhabi: “No, not at all. Max is a straight Michl. He says things as he sees them. He tells the truth , he says exactly what he feels.”
“He was very frustrated with how things turned out last weekend, in a scenario we’ve never seen before, with the grid penalty [um einen Platz]. That spurred him on and then he made an outstanding start and took the lead at the first corner and won the Grand Prix. That was the best possible answer.”
Horner apparently doesn’t share Russell’s view of what has happened in the past few days: “Max always tells the truth. I believe 100 percent that what he said is true. There were other people who “We were in the room with the commissioners, and they came afterwards and reported that they were quite surprised by the approach chosen.”
An allusion to the meeting between the two at the race stewards in Qatar, about which Russell and Verstappen tell very different stories. Verstappen said that Russell was completely over-dramatic in his support for a grid penalty against him, and Russell said that Verstappen arrived there already emotionally charged.
Everyone now agrees that this should remain a matter between the two drivers. Which is why Horner doesn’t want to say anything more about Wolff’s comments: “I won’t get involved in that. Everyone manages their team in their own way. We’ve won 122 races and 14 world championship titles. I think we’re doing quite well.”