Nelson Piquet Jr reveals what he’s heard about Christian Horner ‘creating rumours’ in the F1 paddock

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The F1 paddock is where the politics and business are conducted between the teams and can often be the source of gossip and rumours.

Amid the changes to the regulations next year in 2026, when F1 is set to adopt new cars and power units for the first time, there is a lot of talk about driver contracts.

George Russell is currently out of contract at the end of the season with Mercedes, with indications that he has held informal talks with Christian Horner about a move to Red Bull.

McLaren has also identified Russell as a potential candidate should either Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri leave, although it looks unlikely to happen now that the team is currently the favourites to win the title.

Rumours can often be to a team’s advantage in this case, and according to Nelson Piquet Jr, the Red Bull team principal has been taking advantage of that when speaking on the Pelas Pistas Podcast.

Nelson Piquet reveals what he’s heard about Christian Horner spreading rumours

One of the rumours that has recently been debunked was the idea that Russell would move to Aston Martin, something that was dismissed as ‘nonsense’ spread by Horner to aggravate Toto Wolff.

Piquet Jr believes Horner is creating these to increase his influence in the F1 paddock, having spoken to some people about the Red Bull boss at the recent Canadian Grand Prix.

“Horner, what I heard is that he’s creating rumours for no reason just to generate value, which is very much his style. It seems like that,” said Piquet Jr.

“The talk there is that he’s pretending to be quoted by several teams. It seems like he’s playing this [card] to increase his influence a little bit in the paddock.”

No love lost between Red Bull and Mercedes

Irrespective of the rumours allegedly spread by Horner, in the aftermath of the spat in Canada between Red Bull and Mercedes it shows that there is no love lost between these two teams.

Wolff was furious with Red Bull after they protested the result of the Canadian GP, claiming that Russell was driving in an unsportsmanlike manner behind the late Safety Car in a bid to earn Verstappen a penalty.

Verstappen is currently on 11 penalty points, some of which do not wipe until the end of June. This means he must avoid getting one more at this weekend’s Austrian GP.

Mercedes presented evidence that left Horner and co. red-faced in the stewards’ room, with Verstappen’s data showing that he was braking excessively under the Safety Car.