Christian Horner drops ‘learned not to listen much’ to Toto Wolff jibe

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says he’s “learned not to listen much to” F1 counterpart Toto Wolff after his comments about Max Verstappen.

Mercedes team principal Wolff effectively declared Verstappen a four-time world champion with 20 races still to go this season, citing his and Red Bull’s dominance.

"No-one is going to catch Max this year,” Wolff said after Verstappen claimed his third win from four races at Suzuka.

"His driving and the car are just spectacular. You can see it by the way he manages the tyres. This season is [about] best of the rest. That is the fight that is on."

Three-time world champion Verstappen holds a 13-point lead over Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, who is yet to win this season, in the drivers’ championship.

Verstappen’s victory in Japan marked Red Bull’s third 1-2 of the season and their closest competitor, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, finished 20.8 seconds behind.

But Horner has dismissed Wolff’s bleak assessment of the 2024 season after just four rounds.

“It’s very early to write off the year. There’s still 20 races to go,” Horner said in response to Wolff’s comments.

“I’ve learned not to listen too much to what Toto says over the years.”

Verstappen, who retired while leading in Australia, said: "Melbourne felt like a bit of a hiccup. But what we did today, that's what we want to do, and that's what we aim to do every single weekend.

"It's still a very long season. I don't want to think about the rest of the season too much. I really want to approach it race by race.

"I know there will be tracks coming up that might not be so favourable for us. When we do get to tracks where we know that we can be quick, we have to really take advantage of it and score the maximum amount of points as a team, and that's what we'll continue to try and do.

"And then, of course, I think we know that we get to tracks where maybe it's a bit more difficult we have to try and maximise that as well, where maybe other teams can win as well.”

The Dutchman added: "Looking at the history so far, street circuits are in general a little bit more difficult for us. I do think that our car has improved a bit, you know, in the low speed.

"But of course, on a street circuit, it's not only low speed, it's drivability, it's kerb riding, riding over the bumps. So general ride of a car. So these things are still a little bit unknown at the moment of how well we have improved on that."