Christian Horner jokes about Toto Wolff

Red Bull currently lead Mercedes by 135 points in the Constructors' Championship.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has had an easy start to the 2023 Formula 1 season, given that nobody has been able to compete with the Milton Keynes-based team.

Red Bull have won all seven races this season, with the side often winning by over 20 seconds.

Max Verstappen alone has won five races already this year, making him the clear favourite for a third consecutive Drivers’ Championship.

Due to the Austrians’ superiority, Red Bull already lead the Constructors’ Championship by a mammoth 135 points, with the likes of Mercedes perhaps already turning their attention to 2024.

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Mercedes are second in the standings but have never looked like beating Red Bull, resulting in Toto Wolff and Horner not crossing paths.

The duo, of course, formed a famous rivalry in 2021, as Verstappen and Hamilton went head-to-head for the title.

Some have wondered whether their rivalry could reignite following Mercedes’ introduction of their new concept, which has improved their performance.

Only time will tell if Horner and Wolff will cross paths this season, with Horner having joked that he has the Austrian’s phone number “blocked”.

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Despite the jokes, Horner does recognise that their feud is “healthy” and is actually “good” for the sport.

“I think he’s blocked [on my phone],” Horner laughed, whilst appearing on the Pardon My Take podcast ahead of the recent Monaco Grand Prix.

“It’s fine. I mean, look, there’s healthy competition, and it’s good to have rivalry in sport.

“They did a lot of winning, they’re a great team, and now we’re doing our thing and we’re tending not to look behind and looking forward.

“It’s not really about Toto. It’s about Ferrari, about Aston Martin. And he’s no doubt got his challenges, so I’ll let him focus on those.

“It’s boring if everybody just loves each other and whatever. You’ve got to have a rivalry and it’s got to fire people up.”

Even though Mercedes and Red Bull aren’t currently battling one another, Wolff and Horner continue to take swipes at each other whenever they can.

Wolff admitted earlier this year that his Red Bull counterpart is “obsessed” with him, whilst the Austrian went to the extent of stating that discussing the Briton is a “waste of time in my life”.

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“I am living in his head rent-free,” Wolff told The Times earlier in the year.

“The guy is obsessed.

“Every second that I spend on talking about Horner is a waste of time in my life.”