George Russell and Lando Norris have each told their side of the story after former Red Bull team principal and CEO Christian Horner said the British duo, and Oscar Piastri, paid to use the Austrian team's simulators during their junior careers.

Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, Horner explained that the three drivers used the team's facilities while pursuing their ambitions of reaching Formula 1, with simulator sessions at Red Bull privately funded by their families.

He said: "I remember George Russell was paying us to go on our simulator, and as was Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, their dads were writing checks for them to run on the driver simulator that we had. 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 reveals Formula Renault preparation at Red Bull

Photo: Race Pictures

Russell addressed Horner's claims during Thursday's F1 media day, explaining he did in fact have an opportunity to use the Red Bull simulator to prepare for his Formula Renault debut in 2014.

"Back in 2013, simulators weren't really a thing for anybody. Junior teams didn't have simulators. There was an opportunity to do some driving on that simulator in in the Formula Renault car," Russell said.

"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. So that's the extent of it."

Norris addresses Horner's claims

Focusing more closely on Horner's claim that himself, Russell and Piastri had performed better than Red Bull's juniors, Norris said he was looking for experience from a range of different teams as a youngster, and that he was not aware of any such feedback from the Milton Keynes team.

“This is when I was like 13, this was way before McLaren,” Norris said. “I couldn't be driving someone else's sim when I'm with McLaren.

“This was when I was like five years, four years before McLaren. I've not seen any of this or heard any of it. I was doing it with a lot of different teams. I was trying to get experience. I was learning from different people.

“At that age, it's more valuable than ever to do as much as you possibly can. I drove on different simulators from different teams because it was a good thing for me, especially at that age.

“I don't know what came out of it after that. So it was more just for my own learning than anything else.”