A week after the tension between Hamilton and Verstappen at the Saudi GP, Toto Wolff and Christian Horner faced off at the official FIA press conference in Abu Dhabi. Far from what seemed like it was going to be a meeting with crossed statements, it was quite calm between two protagonists of the 2021 F1 World Cup.
As their drivers battled it out on the circuit, the bosses of Mercedes and Red Bull respectively were throwing darts at each other, as was the case with the issue of flexible wings, technical inquiries and threats of protest.
Even Horner went so far as to describe in Qatar that it was “the most intense political fight for the title in which he had participated”. However, with just two days to go before this World Cup is over, the war of words seems to have cooled down.
Wolff ‘s statements in Brazil affirming that “democracy was over” and Horner’s assuring in Qatar that “there was no relationship between the teams”, became not one, but two handshakes.
“Good luck,” said Wolff, offering Horner his right hand after they had both sat in front of the media at the FIA news conference . “May the best driver and team win,” he added before shaking hands for the second time and ending his appearance.
The two bosses of the contenders for the title expressed their surprise to arrive at the last race in Abu Dhabi with a chance of winning the world championship. “Who would have thought at the beginning of the season that we would be here with a chance to go for that trophy?” said Horner, who needs to score 28 points more than Mercedes if he wants to be the best team.
“Nobody has come close to them in the last eight years, and here we are in the final race, with a chance, far away in the constructors, but even in the drivers, I think there is a lot of excitement,” he said.
Horner also added: “It looks a bit like The Squid Game , we’ve finished tied here, it’s going to be a nice show on Sunday.”
For those who are not familiar with The Squid Game , it is a Netflix series that has been a great success this 2021 and, for those who have not seen it but want to take a look at it, we warn that a small preview follows.
The plot of the Korean series is that hundreds of people participate in various children’s games, such as ‘Green Light, Red Light’, in which the losers are eliminated and killed. However, the last one standing has the chance to win a huge amount of money that will change his life.
The last test of the series confronts two childhood friends, and they fight to the death, but one of them asks for a truce to end the game and both get out alive.
Returning to Formula 1, Horner visualizes this duel with Mercedes as a fictional series and, like Netflix at that time, relaxed the situation at the press conference, despite all the tension accumulated throughout the year.
In Qatar he assured that he should not pretend a friendship with Wolff when there was none, but he showed the respect that any contender for the title should have. The one from Red Bull, however, said that his job was to defend the interests of his team: “I will put my team ahead, and I will defend my drivers tooth and nail, because that is what I represent and try to protect.”
“It would be very artificial for me to sit here throughout the season and have it all laugh with your rival, I can’t do that, it wouldn’t be sincere. Emotions flow, we are in a competitive sport, and that is F1, there is great intensity between the teams,” he said.
“I think I have been honest, it would be very false to come saying how much we love each other and that we are going on vacation after this weekend, because I am not going on vacation with you [Wolff] after this race! Horner assured.
The Mercedes boss agreed: “There is mutual respect for the work the other team has done, they wouldn’t be here fighting for the title if they hadn’t, but it was too intense.”
“I defend my team and its interests, because it doesn’t just depend on those fighting on the track. It’s a battle for the advantage in the regulations and obviously we have different perspectives and opinions,” said Wolff.
The one with the silver arrows also acknowledged that this fight led to some overly emotional reactions in front of the cameras, as happened in Brazil when Hamilton overtook Verstappen.
“I can get quite emotional at the moment, and Christian has his own way of dealing with it, we are different personalities. However, this fight is for one of the most important trophy in the sport, it is a world championship”, added the Austrian. .
“I can expect there to be a lot of discussion between the drivers and the team principals,” he said. It is true that in a category with so much tension, that the rivals have a friendly relationship would be very surprising, as well as somewhat disappointing.
That rivalry between competitors has benefited from the influence of Netflix’s series Drive to Survive , dedicated to Formula 1, but there needs to be respect. Carlos Sainz himself indicated that there was a lot of social media polarization going into this title battle, and it’s good to see Wolff and Horner keeping their cordiality intact.
The Red Bull driver spoke of Verstappen’s maturity and how he was managing the pressure in his first battle for a world title, expressing that the narrative was against his driver. Horner expanded on his statement by defending that it was due, in part, to Hamilton and the “Mercedes media machine”, and stressed the need for the stewards to intervene in the event of unsportsmanlike conduct in the final race.
“No one wants this championship to end in front of the stewards or in a gravel run-off. You want to see these two F1 titans who have gone wheel to wheel all year again this weekend,” he said.
Despite the fact that the fight for the title and relations between two of the most important teams in the category have been broken for much of the campaign, it is expected that everything will be resolved on the track.
It would be a worthy ending to a battle of epic dimensions, a thriller with innumerable plot twists to keep the viewer’s attention, just like in any of the episodes of The Squid Game.
