Horner: No ‘hostage exchange’ of Red Bull F1 staff to Ferrari

Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri recently announced they have hired Mekies from Ferrari as their new team principal to replace long-standing boss Franz Tost, who will stand down at the end of the season. 

The announcement annoyed Ferrari, with team boss Fred Vasseur criticising AlphaTauri for being “a bit aggressive” in how they confirmed Mekies’ signing before the details of his exit from his Ferrari contract had been ironed out. 

Reports have since suggested that Ferrari are looking to poach staff from Red Bull and that their early releases could hold the key to accelerating Mekies’ own switch to AlphaTauri. 

However, Red Bull team principal Horner insisted there are no plans for any “senior or medium-level” personnel to move to Maranello.  

“As usual, there’s plenty of speculation,” Horner said at the Miami Grand Prix. “Will there be a hostage exchange for Laurent Mekies? Well we don’t have any hostages. 

“In terms of personnel moving to Ferrari, certainly at a senior or medium level, there’s nothing planned. 

“Individuals that have been mentioned in connection with Ferrari came to see me last week and mentioned their disbelief in some of these rumours. 

“But it’s Formula 1, that will inevitably happen. But there’s no plans for any senior members of our team to be joining Maranello.”