Horner brushes aside comments: "Hamilton loves this nonsense"

The battle between Mercedes and Red Bull Racing is heating up, both on and off the track. Accusations and psychological games are flying back and forth to try and shake up the rival.

Banter Back and forth

Red Bull Racing are taking staff away from Mercedes for their own engine project, Mercedes are accusing Red Bull Racing of an illegal rear wing, Toto Wolff says the team is already focusing on 2022 rather than 2021. It's just a small sample of the teasing.

During Wednesday's press conference, Lewis Hamilton said that Max Verstappen still had a lot to prove, following comments from McLaren's team principal Zak Brown that a crash between the two title rivals would be inevitable. Verstappen, in turn, responded that he had nothing to prove.

Hamilton under his thumb

Christian Horner also responded to Hamilton's comment on Thursday. "Lewis loves that nonsense, just let him do his thing," the Red Bull team boss told Speedweek.com. "Max is doing his own thing. And the fact that Lewis has to do that probably shows that Max has him under his thumb."

In any case, Horner thinks the rivalry between Hamilton and Verstappen is great. "And we're just at the beginning. Can you imagine what it will be like if these two are still so close in the final races?"