Russell clarifies Red Bull simulator payments after Horner's podcast claim

George Russell has disputed the framing of Christian Horner’s claim that he, Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri paid Red Bull to use their simulator as young drivers, telling media ahead of the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas that the sessions were far more mundane than Horner suggested.

Horner, dismissed as Red Bull’s CEO and team principal last year, said on the High Performance podcast this week that the three drivers’ fathers had written cheques for simulator time, and that the operator had flagged the trio as more talented than Red Bull’s own juniors at the time. Horner also claimed he brought the matter to Helmut Marko, who declined to pursue any of them.

“I remember George Russell was paying us to go on our simulator, as was Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri,” Horner said. “Their dads were writing cheques for them to run on the driver simulator that we had. And the guy that was looking after it was coming up to me and saying, ‘Christian, these kids are better than the juniors we’ve got at the moment.’”

Russell, who currently sits second in the drivers’ championship, offered a more prosaic account. “So back in 2013, simulators weren’t really a thing for anybody,” he said. “Any junior teams didn’t have simulators and there was an opportunity to do some driving on that simulator in the Formula Renault car, so it was more as preparation for testing and driving for the series that we were racing because, as I said, no teams had it. So that’s the extent of it. That’s all I’ll say.”

The exchange adds an intriguing footnote to the careers of three drivers who now occupy the sharp end of the 2025 grid. Norris and Piastri are McLaren teammates fighting for the constructors’ title, while Russell leads Mercedes’ challenge. All three bypassed the Red Bull junior programme entirely and reached Formula 1 through rival pathways — a fact that, in hindsight, Horner appeared keen to frame as a missed opportunity for the team he no longer runs.

The United States Grand Prix weekend at the Circuit of the Americas runs from 23 to 25 October.