Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has played down the significance of Mercedes’ step forward in Formula 1, saying it's no closer than others have been this year.
I mean, he's not wrong, as far as we know. That being said, there might be a world in which he is wrong about something here. There have been rumors since the tail-end of the offseason that Merc had a late change in design direction during the winter. Add to that the fact they were saying since the W14's reveal that there was already an upgrade coming down the line that would change the sidepods, most likely coming by the beginning of the European leg (Imola). Putting all of this together, it could very well be that this iteration of the W14 is the car they'd have wanted to start the season with. If this is true, it could very well be that they didn't eat as much into the budget as Horner makes it seem.
Ofc, the reverse is also true and they could very little budget left already.
I’d love for this to just be banter - Christian would have probably said this either way. I actually like Christian, but at the same time like it even more when he’s wrong (or full of shit!)
We really need a few more races to see how the Merc package is performing against the rest. Spain always seems to be suited to their car. Let's see how well they perform at Canada then Silverstone, if they're still beating Aston (and Ferrari) I think they'll be comfortably second in the constructors come the end of the year. Ferrari seem to be in No Man's Land after their unimpressive upgrade and as much as I'd love Aston to keep fighting at the front, they've been very competitive at some tracks, then well off the pace in others.
Realistically, even if Merc bring another 3 major upgrade packages with similar gains each time, I don't think they're seriously going to be troubling Red Bull, at least with any consistency.
Add comment