Is the Wolff vs Horner conflict back to F1 2021 levels?

Mercedes was at pains to point out that Toto Wolff’s “yapping little terrier” jibe had been directed at his opposite Formula 1 team principal number at Red Bull, Christian Horner.

Its communications team knew he was planning to say something on the media day for the season finale here in Abu Dhabi. But not that he’d so overtly infiltrate George Russell’s press briefing – standing over his charge less like a protective parent, but more a united front of point-making.

Max Verstappen, in the final part of the day’s media tit-for-tat that’d started with Russell unloading on the Dutchman’s post-Qatar Grand Prix comments on his character in a group interview including Motorsport.com, clearly viewed Wolff’s appearance in Russell’s media briefing as the former.

“I can fend for myself,” said Verstappen.

And while an emotional quality shone through Russell’s words all day – he doesn’t appear delighted with this unfamiliar situation of public conflict that has got very personal, which perhaps explains why he went too far in insinuating what Verstappen would’ve done to former race director Michael Masi had the Abu Dhabi 2021 saga been reversed in Lewis Hamilton’s favour – this whole saga is wrapped in long-term strategic thinking.

Motorsport.com understands that Russell himself initiated this public response to Verstappen’s Qatar comments, which, from the near-empty press conference room last Sunday night, also had a pre-mediated whiff.

A plan of action therefore unfolded – Russell out to take a stand at what he calls people being “bullied by Max” and his on- and off-track tactics – with Mercedes and Wolff keen to assist.

Wolff is pleased his team leader for 2025 is showing fire in an attempt to put a hard stop on Verstappen’s own uncompromising, relentlessly attacking approaches. He and Mercedes also feel Verstappen’s reaction shows the Silver Arrows squad and Russell are a threat for the 2025 world title.

Potential on-track conflict between the two drivers has possible upside for Mercedes – 2024 has reinforced that when the pressure is on Verstappen is fallible.

But so too is Russell, as the Qatar start showed, with his second phase of the launch understood to not have been his best in controlling wheelspin, having made the better reaction with the Red Bull pointed across his bows.

All of this also shifts focus away from Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s upcoming debut and buries the attention on Wolff’s “shelf-life” comment regarding Hamilton’s career longevity.

Wolff, in being very careful to direct his ire at Horner’s “hysterics from George” comments post-race in Qatar, is also clearly confident this spat won’t impact any future attempt to lure Verstappen from Red Bull to Mercedes. This is surely the interregnum of that campaign.

Wolff even thinks Russell and Verstappen will be playing padel tennis together again soon enough, but there’s a warning in the latter’s refusal to help Sergio Perez finish second in the 2022 championship that highlights how Verstappen seemingly struggles to let any perceived slight or injustice go. After all, that is what sparked the current spat.

Red Bull’s side in this conflict has been quieter overall. In terms of the PR game, they are led by Verstappen as he will say and do as he sees fit. Direct as ever.

Wolff views this as a failure of management on Horner’s part – although it would be utterly fascinating to see how successful he’d be in working with and around Verstappen’s uncompromising character.

Red Bull insiders are not viewing the spat as the 2025 title battle starting now. But it has long been accepted that the mind games are constant at the elite end of any sport, in F1 even with one team doing more winning that the rest, and there is an acknowledgement that Verstappen did say something contentious to Russell after leaving the stewards’ hearing last Saturday.

There’s even a wild theory this whole exchange is designed to suit Netflix’s upcoming next season of Drive to Survive – with both sides acknowledging on Thursday that it does bring F1 closer to the box-office status that ultra-close, but bitter, 2021 campaign had. It has the potential to fuel a winter of off-season stories, especially if on-track blows this weekend follow those deployed metaphorically off-track so far.

Horner’s public response to Wolff’s “yapping little terrier” comment will come in the pre-FP2 press conference at Yas Marina on Friday, if not his semi-regular slot on Sky Sports F1 beforehand.

Wolff did seem to go low rather than high in such a personal retort, but he felt he had to respond to Horner’s specific use of “hysterics” in the jibe at Russell.

Motorsport.com understands Horner was only reflecting what he’d been told of the chat between the two drivers in the stewards’ room enquiry, but his comment was still delivered with a second, slightly needless, barb of “[Russell] has been quite hysterical this weekend”.

But Wolff says he’d never do similar with such a specific word, which let’s not forget can come with a misogynistic connotation, and feels a line was crossed.

Wolff vs Horner, Mercedes vs Red Bull. It’s not a new F1 conflict after 2021, even if it’s a different Silver Arrows driver taking on Verstappen this time. Under the surface, it never stopped.

Photos from Abu Dhabi GP Practice