Toto Wolff jokes about Red Bull trick: ‘I must protest’

"That's an interesting point," says Toto Wolff when asked by GPblog about Laurent Mekies's appointment at Red Bull Racing. I should bring that up actually and protest.

The new team principal of Max Verstappen was in fact appointed without gardening leave, because Racing Bulls and Red Bull Racing closely cooperate. Furthermore, Mekies is still the director of both Racing Bulls and Red Bull Racing on paper.

"So it's clear that between the two sister teams, that if there was someone in the Visa...", then Wolff laughs hesitating on the team's name. Is it Racing Bulls, AlphaTauri? Eventually, the conclusion is Minardi: "Let's do that."

Normally, team top officials in Formula 1 have to wait a long time before they can switch to a rival team. The so-called gardening leave ensures that information from one team cannot end up at a rival from one day to the next.

In the recent past, there have been countless examples of those who had to comply with gardening leave. Think of Adrian Newey who stood on the sidelines for over half a year before he could start at Aston Martin, or Rob Marshall and David Sanchez who had to wait a long time before they could join McLaren.

While Red Bull asserts that Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls are two separate teams, there is irritation among the competitors about the fact that the two teams can freely exchange people. Mekies was an example of this. Any other team principal would have to stand on the sidelines for at least a year, before a transfer would be possible.

There is whispering in Formula 1 about a mandatory Gardening Leave for personnel of a certain status, to ensure equality between all teams. However, at the moment, there is no such regulation.

In the same interview with Toto Wolff, the team principal of Mercedes also touched on the predecessor of Laurent Mekies: Christian Horner. Horner and Wolff were big rivals for years and clashed multiple times.

In the conversation, Wolff revealed that Horner had also sent him a message after he was fired from Red Bull Racing. "Yes. He said to me, ‘What are you doing now? Because you love to hate me and now I'm gone," the Austrian revealed.

Many more topics were covered in the interview with Toto Wolff. The Mercedes team principal also talked about conversations with Max Verstappen and about the situation of Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari. You can read more about this here.

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