Christian Horner is still surprised that Mercedes F1 hasn’t won a race in 2022, after eight seasons of chasing world titles. The Red Bull boss expected them to dominate, with a radical concept and extensive work on the new car last year.
« Yes, I’m surprised by Mercedes’ lack of pace » Horner explained on the Beyond the Grid podcast. « Because they made an early transition to the 2022 rules in 2021, they were vocal about compromising the championship last year to switch to their 2022 car very early. »
“Then of course when their car was unveiled, especially with this evolution of the zero pontoon concept, it was radically different. Seeing the dominance of Mercedes, you would expect them to be in a very similar position. . »
« Obviously they were hurt last year being beaten by Max for the drivers title, but we thought they would come back with a new vengeance this year. So it’s quite amazing that after the dominance they have eight years they have yet to win a Grand Prix in 2022. »
After a phase of astonishment and concern, Mercedes’ zero pontoon concept did not pose a problem for Horner for long: « The first question was ‘is this legal?’ Because it’s a very different interpretation, and of course it was. »
« Then the guys were pretty convinced from the start that it wouldn’t work in the architecture that we had created. There was a confidence within the team that we had chosen the right path. »
« When the lap times started coming in at Bahrain testing, and you could see the cars on the track, it didn’t look like they had a flare, or that we had missed anything fundamental. »
