Rivals didn’t ’steal’ Red Bull sponsors - Horner

Christian Horner has played down suggestions Red Bull’s rivals tried to "steal" Formula 1 sponsors over the budget cap breach drama of last year.

Red Bull was fined $7 million and lost 10 percent of its wind tunnel time this year after being found by the FIA to have slightly overspent in 2021.

"These things get used by your rivals," team boss Christian Horner told ’i newspaper’ earlier this year.

"We had one of them contacting our sponsors and partners making suggestions that we would be bringing their brands into disrepute. That was just underhand."

However, when asked about the situation by Sky, Horner denied he ever accused Red Bull’s rivals of actively trying to "steal" sponsors over the saga.

"It wasn’t about stealing sponsors," he said. "The intention was to suggest to the sponsors that their partnership could bring the brands into disrepute."

But Horner also stopped short of pointing the finger directly at Mercedes’ Toto Wolff, with fellow F1 team boss Gunther Steiner revealing recently that it often seems as though the pair "want to kill each other".

When asked which ’rivals’ contacted Red Bull’s sponsors, Horner answered: "I’ll leave that entirely to your imagination."