"I'm gonna come after you" - When Toto Wolff confronted Christian Horner about F1 porpoising risks

In 2022, Toto Wolff confronted fellow team principal Christian Horner during an F1 team meeting after the former's team suffered from acute proposing. The Mercedes W13 Challenger from 2022 struggled against an uncomfortable phenomenon called porpoising, and Wolff was not in the mood to leave the matter unaddressed.

Following the introduction of new regulations in 2022, Mercedes struggled with performance, as its car could not keep up with the ground effect. As a result, its on-track performances were hampered, as it not only hindered race pace but also put drivers in an uncomfortable position.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell complained about porpoising nearly every weekend, something the Mercedes team management took seriously and asked the FIA to address. Finally, in one meeting with F1 and fellow team principals, Wolff decided to draw attention to the matter, and this was when he had a verbal spat with Horner.

Wolff having a war of words with Horner is not a rare scene when it comes to Formula 1. The two team principals have been after each other at every given opportunity, and the meeting a couple of years ago was no different. This time, their spat was aired on Netflix.

Shot on the backdrop of the 2022 F1 season, Netflix released its fifth season of Drive to Survive in 2023. In one of the episodes, the two team principals clashed on porpoising, as they disagreed on a proposal. The Mercedes boss wanted F1 to intervene, while the Red Bull team principal wanted teams to find a solution by themselves.

“I can tell you that all of you are playing a dangerous game," Toto Wolff said, pointing fingers at Christian Horner. "If a car ends the wall because it is too stiff or it is bottoming out, you are in the s**t and I’m gonna come after you.”

This was followed by a series of arguments and counterarguments as F1 chief Stefano Domenicali, McLaren CEO Zak Brown, and other team principals sat there and watched them have the verbal spat.

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Christian Horner retaliated against Toto Wolff with a solution

Mercedes GP Executive Director Toto Wolff and Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner - Source: Getty

As Toto Wolff warned Christian Horner that he would come after the latter and everyone else in the meeting if the porpoising caused a massive accident, the Red Bull boss had a befitting reply.

Replying to Wolff's words, Horner said, “Are we playing to the cameras here? I think this is probably better off camera.”

To this, Wolff had his say:

"I don’t care. If you think this is a little game on performance, I’ll tell you, you are very, very wrong.”

Finally, the Red Bull boss decided to end the spat by sharing a solution. He looked at the Silver Arrows team principal and said:

“Change your car. You’ve got a problem, change your f**king car.”

Thanks to Adrian Newey's brilliance, Red Bull coped with the ground effect brilliantly and ended up winning the constructors' championship in 2022 and 2023. While Mercedes struggled with porpoising throughout 2022 and gradually started getting better from 2023 onwards.