Christian Horner has taken a swipe at his Mercedes rival Toto Wolff, downplaying the success the Austrian has achieved with the Silver Arrows.
Both Horner and Wolff made no secret of their rivalry in the last campaign, exchanging a number of low blows and bust ups throughout the 2021 title race.
And Horner has reignited the feud heading into the new season, claiming that Wolff has ‘not had to build anything’ due to the success of Lewis Hamilton and inheriting an already well-performing team.
Speaking on the soon to be released new season of Formula 1: Drive to Survive, the 48-year-old said: “What you have to remember about Toto is he has inherited something that is already well-oiled.
"He has not had to build anything. He operates the team in a much different way to me.”
The Red Bull boss went on to add that he believes Wolff is financially motivated, rather than inspired by winning titles and ‘competitions’.
He continued: “He is much more motivated by the financials of F1 than perhaps the competition."
In a separate clip on the new season, rival Wolff was presented with Horner’s comments to which he responded: “I don't care what others are doing.
"It's about optimising my contribution in the team without looking elsewhere."
The Mercedes and Red Bull rivalry reached boiling point at the end of the last campaign, after Max Verstappen controversially pipped Hamilton to the world title on the very final lap of the year in Abu Dhabi.
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And it seems there will be no let up in 2022, after Red Bull were on Thursday forced to deny Horner had accused Mercedes' car for the new season of not being legal.
The Red Bull boss was quoted by Auto Motor Und Sport as saying: “The new Mercedes violates the spirit of the regulations. For us, some parts are not legal.”
A Red Bull statement responded: “Christian Horner has not given any interviews regarding Mercedes' car.
“Any quotes being attributed to him this morning are incorrect.”
All 10 Formula 1 teams are out in Bahrain for the 2022 official pre-season testing, ahead of next weekend’s campaign-opening Grand Prix in the Middle East.
