Christian Horner admits that in his frustration over Toto Wolff publicly courting Max Verstappen, he decided to “fight fire with fire” and spoke with George Russell’s people about a move to Red Bull.

Horner spent his final years as Red Bull team principal dealing with rumours that his four-time world champion Verstappen would leave Red Bull for Mercedes.

Christian Horner explains why he approached George Russell about Red Bull

The rumours reached fever pitch in 2024 when Wolff sought a replacement for the Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton.

And the Mercedes team principal made no secret of wanting Verstappen.

The Austrian fuelled the rumours as he spoke of “factors” behind a driver swapping teams, adding: “Maybe there are more depths for some people that consider other factors too. I think that Max has that.”

And it continued until Mercedes finally announced Kimi Antonelli for F1 2025.

But that didn’t stop the rumour mill for long, with fresh speculation in early 2025, especially as Wolff remained coy about Russell’s contract for the 2026 championship.

Such were the rumours, Alpine de facto team principal Flavio Briatore told Horner that he heard Verstappen had agreed to switch to Mercedes.

Outlining the situation in his autobiography, Drive, Horner wrote: “This situation was being aggravated by Toto, who was still doing everything he could to lure Max to Mercedes.

“There were more dinners and the public courting continued unabated. At one point, Flavio approached me to say that Toto was convinced that Max would be a Mercedes driver in 2026.

“I shrugged it off. Max hadn’t indicated that he wanted out, so these developments were frustrating, but ultimately irrelevant.

“By that stage, I felt sorrier for George Russell. As a Mercedes driver, he must have been bemused at the situation.”

Horner decided that two could play the game.

During the 2025 British Grand Prix, which turned out to be Horner’s final race in charge at Red Bull, he contacted Russell’s people for a meeting.

He felt that if Wolff was going to be ‘disrespectful’ to Russell, the Mercedes driver should join Red Bull.

“After getting tired of Toto’s challenging approach, I decided to fight fire with fire and contacted George Russell’s people for a meeting,” Horner wrote.

“George was nearing the end of his contract, and if it was fine for Toto to constantly talk to my drivers, then I didn’t see anything wrong with talking to him about a possible move to Red Bull.

“At first, I expressed my confusion about Mercedes’ attitude toward George’s contract. I asked his advisor why they weren’t exercising their option for the following year when he’d performed so strongly.

“Then I explained how, in my view, it was obvious that Toto was waiting for Max to make his decision and was stringing George along in the meantime.

“I also felt that all of Toto’s public courtship [of Max] was disrespectful to such a talented young driver. He should consider Red Bull.”

Horner was axed by Red Bull days later, with Russell later confirmed by Mercedes for the F1 2026 season while Verstappen remained with Red Bull.

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