Red Bull's Christian Horner praises Mercedes' Toto Wolff for 'having the confidence to talk out about' mental health

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner praised Mercedes boss Toto Wolff for speaking up about his mental health. The Austrian exec opened up about his struggles with mental health while taking a class at Harvard Business School.

In a refreshing moment of unity between Red Bull and Mercedes, Christian Horner has praised Toto Wolff's urge for greater dialog about mental health in the sport. The Briton and Austrian often butt heads, making cheeky and sarcastic comments about each other. On this particular occasion, however, Horner has acknowledged the Mercedes boss' position, claiming that while he personally has not suffered mentally, he knows the importance of being in the right place on a mental level.

The Red Bull boss spoke to the media in a pre-qualifying press conference, saying:

“Yeah, I think all credit to Toto for having the courage to talk out about his issues with mental health. It is something that there is much more of a spotlight on these days and I think that it is something in this business that we are acutely aware of and something that we’re looking to be pro-active on. I’m fortunate that I haven’t had issues personally but I’ve had members of… friends that I know who have suffered as a result of mental health issues so of course, it is an important topic and I think it is very good to highlight it. I think to be able to talk out about it is a positive thing so yes, I’m not going to… as I say, all credit to Toto for having the confidence to talk out about his own personal issues.”

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Other team bosses also praised Mercedes' Toto Wolff for opening up about mental health

Horner's praise for Wolff was echoed by Haas team principal Gunther Steiner and AlphaTauri's Franz Tost. All three team principals acknowledged Wolff's call for increased dialog in the mental health space, claiming that being open about the issues is the best way to solve them.

Haas principal Gunther Steiner spoke about the Mercedes boss, saying:

“Toto was very courageous but I think he did the right thing. Hopefully a lot of people which have got mental health issues come out with it because that’s the only way to solve them is being open about it. You don’t have to tell everybody but at least you go and speak with the people who know and mental health is sometimes is treated like something you shouldn’t have. I classify it as anything else which is wrong with your system, so people need to be open about it and by Toto coming out hopefully people understand that, that even people like Toto have issues and they deal with it and they should do as well.”

Only when high-profile individuals such as Toto Wolff talk about mental health will the issue be destigmatized. With F1 trying its best to help its people, only a more open dialog will change public opinion on mental health.