The Portuguese Grand Prix and the Spanish Grand Prix mark the first back-to-back race weekends in the 2021 Formula 1 season. But even during the week, there was plenty of action with Red Bull Racing announcing five new members of staff to join their power unit project. All members of staff move from Mercedes, and therefore Toto Wolff has a say on things.
A new chapter
Red Bull Racing will be entering a new chapter when they start to develop their own engines as well as their own chassis. The Austrian team will look to build this factory on the same site as their chassis and Wolff believes this kind of staff movement should be expected.
"It's pretty obvious. If you want to set up an engine factory, there's only one in the UK and that's us. We have 900 or so employees, and if you're fishing out 15 of these then that's pretty normal. Credit to the project, it's a Mount Everest to climb and I'd like to have a fight with Red Bull power units," Wolff told Sky Sports.
"I think they have approached 100 people or so, and they got 15 maybe. Doubling the salaries is one thing, but tripling them at a certain stage means you're not going to compete any more even with loyalty. It is what it is."