Christian Horner made an ‘angry’ call to Red Bull after seeing how Toto Wolff was honoured on Austrian TV

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One of the best parts of Formula 1 is the rivalries that develop on and off the track.

This season, the drivers’ championship is being fought between McLaren teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

Norris drove into the back of Piastri at the Canadian Grand Prix, but aside from that, their battles have been relatively well-mannered.

However, some pairings don’t get on quite as well, such as Christian Horner and Toto Wolff.

Prior to last season, Red Bull and Mercedes had won every constructors’ title since Brawn GP in 2009.

Although Horner and Wolff were occasionally friendly, as seen in the paddock at the conclusion of the 2023 season in Abu Dhabi when they were arm-in-arm, the majority of the time, they were furious competitors.

Even more recently, Horner’s Red Bull team protested George Russell’s victory in Canada, even though it seemed likely that the complaint would be thrown out.

​​Russell and Max Verstappen came to blows in Qatar last year, and both team principals had their say on the matter, which did little to improve the relationship between the two teams.

Horner has now left his role as team principal of Red Bull after more than 20 years, leaving Wolff without one of his nemeses in the paddock.

However, it has emerged that in his home country of Austria, he found another way to get under his rival’s skin.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Mercedes F1 CEO and team principal Toto Wolff

Christian Horner ‘angry’ Toto Wolff received recognition from Red Bull-backed TV station in Austria

Journalist Peter Hardenacke was speaking on the Backstage Boxengasse Podcast about Horner’s Red Bull dismissal.

He explained: “Yes, and this vanity which grew ever greater with Christian Horner.

“I also think that Drive to Survive played a role there, right? That somewhere, the touch with reality was lost.

“There is an episode, perhaps someone could also tell you about it, there was a feature that was made by Servus TV, the in-house channel of Red Bull, about Toto Wolff, the team principal of Mercedes.

“And apparently, Christian Horner saw it and then immediately made an angry phone call, asking why they hadn’t done something like that with him.

“So, you can see in which areas Christian Horner was active and what was important to him.

“And even in some of the episodes of Drive to Survive, it’s a great format, clearly it made Formula 1 bigger and more famous, but I think that was already too far removed from what a team principal should be doing.”

READ MORE: All to know about sacked Red Bull team principal Christian Horner with net worth

Christian Horner looking to emulate Toto Wolff’s F1 team ownership role

Horner had a lot of control in his role at Red Bull as CEO and team principal.

However, he was never in a position to take an additional step up and become a partial owner of the team, with Red Bull shares distributed between the Austrian and Thai sides of the business.

At Mercedes, Wolff is part-owner and team principal, giving him more control than any other team boss in the paddock, and Horner is said to be ‘jealous’ of Wolff’s position as a result.

There have been suggestions that Horner and Bernie Ecclestone could go into a part-ownership agreement with a team on the grid.

Alpine could be willing to sell a stake in their team, which would be an interesting opportunity for the 51-year-old.

Horner has a strong relationship with Flavio Briatore, although he’s unlikely to ever accept a sole team principal role again in his F1 career.