Christian Horner bites back with “wolf” dig at Toto Wolff’s “terrier” tease

Red Bull F1 team principal Christian Horner has bitten back at Toto Wolff after his Mercedes counterpart labelled him a “yappy little terrier”.

The season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has been dominated by an escalating rivalry and war of words between Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ driver George Russell over the four-time world champion’s penalty at the Qatar Grand Prix.

Mercedes team principal waded into the drama by taking a swipe at Horner and reignited their own rivalry which has been an underlying storyline ever since the controversial title fight between Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen in 2021.

Horner responded to Wolff’s jibe during Friday’s FIA press conference at the Yas Marina circuit.

“I love terriers, I think they are great dogs!” Horner told media including Crash.net. “I’ve had four! A couple of airedales, which are the king of the terriers. I had couple of West Highland terriers called Bernie and Flavio.

“The good thing with terriers is that they are tremendously loyal. Bernie was an aggressive little dog, he’d go for anybody. Flavio was a bit more chilled out, he maybe ate too much as well.

“Look, to be called a terrier, is that such a bad thing? They are not afraid to have a go at the bigger dogs. I’d rather be called a terrier than a wolf, maybe.”

Asked if he is concerned that the row between Verstappen and Russell could spill onto the track this weekend, Horner replied: “No, not at all.

“Max is a very straight shooter, he tells you exactly how he sees it. He tells the truth, exactly what he feels. He had a large amount of frustration last weekend with the way things played out.

“It was a scenario we hadn’t seen before, with the subsequent grid penalty. He turned it into motivation and had a blinding start. He won the grand prix which was the best possible response.

“Obviously a lot was made of it yesterday, it’s pantomime season. We are getting ready for Christmas. So there’s maybe some end-of-term blues, there but I don’t think it will have any effect on the grand prix itself.”

Horner described Wolff as being “quite dramatic” and spoke of his surprise that Mercedes were not focusing on Hamilton’s final race for the team.

“There seems to be a love-hate relationship where I think Toto loves to hate me,” Horner added. “It’s one of these things.

“I would have assumed he’s got a bit more on his plate with it being Lewis’s last race for that team. I think they should be celebrating that rather than focusing on other aspects.”

Verstappen ‘does nothing but tell the truth’

Russell sensationally claimed that Verstappen had threatened to crash into him on purpose and “put his head into the f*****g wall” in Qatar, something the Dutchman has refuted.

Horner was also pressed on whether he believed Verstappen had said what Russell alleged, to which he responded: “Max does nothing but tell the truth, so I believe 100% what he said to be accurate.

“Of course there’s other people in those stewards rooms as well, and they also came back and reported that they were quite surprised at the approach that was taken.

“Regarding Toto’s other comments, I’m not going to raise to the bait of that. Everybody manages themselves and their teams in different ways. We’ve won 122 races, we’ve won 14 world championships, I think we’re doing alright.”