Red Bull boss Christian Horner has urged Toto Wolff to focus on ‘other elements’ and not Max Verstappen with Mercedes lagging behind two of their customer teams at the moment.

The Silver Arrows were slower than McLaren and Aston Martin at the Chinese Grand Prix, prompting Horner to take aim at Wolff after the race.

Wolff spoke about the ‘ambitious’ targets Mercedes have set for 2026 but admitted that if he was Verstappen, he would choose to stay at Red Bull for the 2025 season.

“But I’m not Max,” he added. “It’s the quickest car but there are still other factors.”

Quizzed on Wolff’s comments, Horner said: “I think he’s probably got other elements that he needs to be focusing on rather than focusing on drivers that are unavailable.

“I don’t know how many more times he needs to say this, he’s said it numerous times. I’m not going to get drawn into this, I think sometimes it’s just designed to create noise.

“We’ve moved today ahead of the amount of races that Mercedes have won in the modern era. The team is in form. Why on earth would you want to leave this team?

“Mercedes are the third team behind their customers at the moment, so I would think his [Wolff’s] time would be better spent perhaps focusing on the team rather than the driver market.”