George Russell responds to Christian Horner's Red Bull simulator claim
Mercedes F1 driver George Russell has clarified comments made by former Red Bull boss Christian Horner regarding young drivers paying to use team simulators. Russell explained that the practice was a standard way for junior drivers to gain experience in the absence of team-provided simulators in 2013.
Why it matters
The exchange highlights the evolving nature of driver development and the historical lack of infrastructure for junior racers in Formula 1.
Mercedes Formula 1 driver George Russell has responded to former Red Bull Racing CEO and team principal Christian Horner's claims that he, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri used to pay to use the Milton Keynes outfit's simulators.
Horner, who was dismissed from Red Bull last year, said on the High Performance podcast this week that all three drivers had paid to use the team's simulator when they were younger. According to Horner, the person running the simulator told him the three young drivers were better than those Red Bull already had, but Helmut Marko was not interested in signing them.
"I remember George Russell was paying us to go on our simulator, as was Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Their dads were writing cheques for them to run on the driver simulator that we had," Horner said.
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