Wolff philosophizes over Red Bull's aggressive recruitment to Mercedes

Christian Horner readily admits: the tactics used by Red Bull to build and expand its newly created engine department was “ inevitable », to quote the British manager at the microphone of Sky Sports F1.  

Translation: the Milton Keynes team has pulled out all the stops to poach as many members as possible from High Performance Powertrains, the Mercedes entity based in Brixworth (UK) which designs and builds the irresistible German 6L V1,6 turbo hybrid.  

After the announcement of the appointment of Ben Hodgkinson as technical director of Red Bull Powertrains, the Austrian giant formalized this week the arrival of 5 other recruits in key positions, all also from Mercedes. 

Toto wolff revealed this Friday in Barcelona that they would not be the last to change sides.

« There is only one engine department in the UK, it's ours, recalled the Austrian at the microphone of Sky also. From there, you don't have 36 solutions if you want to build your own infrastructure. We have some 900 employees. It is therefore quite normal to lose around fifteen to the competition. 

I believe they (Red Bull, Editor’s note) approached around a hundred people and enrolled perhaps 15 of them. 

But they focused on recruiting profiles specializing in construction, rather than performance. They want to do things in order and lay the foundations. Let us salute this enterprise because it is like climbing Everest. I would like to compete against Red Bull engines in the future ». 

Wolff also suggested that Red Bull would have made the kind of offers you can't refuse to lure in their nets of Mercedes talents and best prepare for the future 2025 regulations.
  
« Doubling salaries is one thing, but when you arrive at tripled amounts, it’s difficult to compete, even for people of absolute loyalty, added the boss of Brackley and Brixworth. The situation is what it is. I respect everyone's methods for building their business. The time for reprisals has not yet come ». 

Clearly, the Mercedes-Red Bull fight promises to be as intense on the track as it is off it.