"I was probably guilty"- Red Bull boss regrets pushing for team radio to FIA after 2021 F1 Abu Dhabi GP episode

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner regrets urging F1 to broadcast some of the team communications in the 2021 season.

The Briton revealed he had suggested the sport to broadcast some of the radio, which led to his rival Toto Wolff constantly lobbying the former race director Michael Masi until the Abu Dhabi finale.

Speaking on the F1 podcast Beyond the Grid, the Red Bull team principal said:

“It started with Toto for the first time because the messages started to get broadcast, which I was probably guilty of, because I was pushing for that within the Formula 1 strategy meetings and commission meetings to say that ‘there’s an awful lot of intercom that goes on, that I think the spectators should be aware of’ – and that’s mainly between the team managers and the referee."

He added:

"The result of that is that hopefully, we may get less of it. But I think it would be [a] fascinating exchange, because the team manager is only going to call up the race director, if they feel they’ve got something really strong to argue they’re not going to bitch about something that’s fairly trivial. And it was in Barcelona that suddenly, I hear they broadcast Toto on the phone to Mikey, I thought, ‘that’s a bit strange’.”

Horner revealed that he suggested that the sport should broadcast some of the team radio at the F1 strategy meetings and commission meetings because there is some interesting chatter that fans would like.

However, he regrets this after hearing about his rival team, Mercedes', boss Wolff directly on the radio to the Race Director in Barcelona in 2021. The Red Bull CEO revealed that the radio communications broadcast were normal with team managers involved but not the team principals.

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Red Bull boss reveals the nature of the heated conversation on the radio with Mercedes boss in Silverstone

Horner revealed that he never had a one-on-one conversation with Masi; it was always his team manager doing the talking. However, in Silverstone, when Lewis Hamilton clashed with Max Verstappen, punting the latter out of the race, the radio communications got heated.

The Red Bull team boss revealed that Wolff tried to reduce his driver’s penalty by talking to Masi and lobbying him during the race.

Horner revealed he had a heated conversation with Wolff after the incident in race control while the race was red flagged. It was only after Silverstone that Horner chose to be on the communication line with Masi from time to time.

Explaining the incident at Silverstone, the Red Bull CEO said:

“I never had a one-to-one channel, it had always been sent through our team manager. And then it really permeated at Silverstone where, suddenly, there was an awful lot of dialogue suddenly from Toto to Michael, and then he’s sending him an email, and then he’s coming up. And I thought, ‘right, okay, I’m not having that, I’m going up."

The Red Bull CEO continued:

"Because I felt it was incredibly one-sided that a team principal should not be able to lobby and influence the race director and, with hindsight, Toto and I had a fairly heated exchange in Race Control at that event, where Toto was obviously arguing his corner that his driver shouldn’t be penalised, and I’ve got a driver in hospital and a car taken out of the race, [which I] was obviously feeling pretty aggrieved by.”

The incident at Silverstone had not only heated the rivalry between the two title contenders but also the two team principals.

A pantomime theme followed in the races after, resulting in a toxic rivalry during the final two races and particularly the finale.

The off-track drama off-season was a result of the same dramatic rivalry that had encapsulated the 2021 season and cost Masi his job.