Christian Horner claims drivers paid for Red Bull simulator use
Christian Horner alleged that George Russell, Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri used Red Bull's simulator through payments made by their families. Both Russell and Norris addressed the claims, stating the sessions were used for early career preparation and gaining experience.
Christian Horner claims that George Russell, Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri used Red Bull’s simulator through payments made by their families. Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, the former Red Bull Racing team principal said their fathers wrote checks for them to run on the driver simulator. Horner also stated that the person managing the simulator told him these three drivers were better than the Red Bull juniors at that time. He told the podcast that he even took the drivers to Helmut Marko to suggest the team should look at them, although he noted that Marko was not interested in signing the young drivers. Horner, who was dismissed from Red Bull last year, made these remarks while discussing how the three drivers pursued their ambitions to reach the top.
| Driver | Reported payment source | Timing context |
|---|---|---|
| George Russell | Family checks | 2013 preparation |
| Lando Norris | Family checks | Age 13 |
| Oscar Piastri | Family checks | Early career |
Russell and Norris deny the claims
George Russell and Lando Norris addressed Horner’s comments during the media day for the United States Grand Prix, which is scheduled for 23-25 October at the Circuit of the Americas. Russell, who currently sits second in the drivers’ championship, explained that he used the simulator in 2013 to prepare for his Formula Renault debut in 2014. He noted that junior teams lacked simulators at that time, which made the opportunity useful for his career. "So it was more as preparation for, you know, testing and driving for a series that we were racing because as I said, no teams had it," Russell said. He added that no other teams had simulators and this was the full extent of his involvement with the Milton Keynes facility.
Lando Norris, the reigning champion, said he was about 13 years old during the sessions and was simply trying to gain experience from different teams. He stated that he was four or five years away from joining the McLaren programme and had not heard any feedback from the Milton Keynes team regarding the comparison to Red Bull’s juniors. Norris explained that at his age, it was more valuable than ever to do as much as possible by driving on different simulators from different teams. "I don’t know what came out of it after that. So it was more just for my own learning than anything else," Norris said. He emphasized that he was learning from different people during that period and could not be driving someone else’s simulator once he was with McLaren. He added that he was using a wide range of different teams to gain as much experience as possible while he was a youngster.
