Wolff, when asked whether doubling salaries at Mercedes could ward Red Bull’s advances off – something Red Bull s Dr Helmut Marko reportedly said the Silver Arrows were resorting to – explained that Red Bull had approached far more than just those six Mercedes’ personnel, however.
The Mercedes chief said: “I think they have, in all, approached 100 people or so and they got 15, maybe, and doubling the salaries is one thing but if you triple them, at some stage you’re not going to be able to compete anymore, even for loyal people. It is what it is. I respect everybody that wants to defend or build his business and retaliation time has not yet come,” he said.
It was announced ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix that Red Bull had lured five more Mercedes power unit staff – on top of former Mercedes High Performance Powertrains Head of Mechanical Engineering Ben Hodgkinson – to their newly-formed Red Bull Powertrains project. But according to both Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ own Lewis Hamilton, targeting personnel from the most dominant team in F1 history is hardly a leftfield move by Red Bull.
Steve Blewett, Omid Mostaghimi, Pip Clode, Steve Brodie and Anton Mayo have all made the decision to swap Mercedes HPP for Red Bull’s bold new Red Bull Powertrains programme, which will initially run Honda’s power units, with a plan to then field a power unit produced by Red Bull themselves the next time the engine regulations change in 2025 – with Hodgkinson taking on the role of Technical Director.