Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff described Red Bull boss Christian Horner as “a bit of a windsock who wants to be in front of the camera” when the battle of words between the two in Azerbaijan over Flexi-Wings escalated.
The comments came after Horner warned Wolff to “shut up” and “be careful what you want” after hinting that Red Bull might decide to protest against Mercedes’ flexible front wings.
Red Bull insists that their car fully complies with FIA regulations and accused rival teams of having complained to try to “slow down” the championship leaders.
A handful of teams, including Red Bull, have come under fire in recent weeks for their so-called “bendy wings”. The FIA introduced new tests to curb illegal wing movements.
However, after seeing footage from Sky Sports F1 of the rear wing of the Mercedes during the first practice session in Baku, Horner asked what he saw: “It looks, if anything, a little worse here than here.”
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“Of course there was a lot of noise made on the rear wing and a lot of revisions had to be made.
“When you pluck at one end, you have to look at the other. You can’t look at one part in isolation and say, “Oh, this set of rules only applies to this element in this car”. You need to look at all areas.
“Sometimes you have to be a little careful about what you want.
“You open a full can of worms, so there are rigorous tests. All cars have some degree of flexibility. It’s impossible to build a completely rigid structure with tons of downforce applied to it.
“The rules have to evolve. They have some very clever technicians who develop components that comply with the rules, that’s what we pay them for, that’s what Formula 1 is about, this engineering skill.
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“You have to be legal, you have to follow the rules, but you have to go beyond those limits and that’s what we do in the pit lane like every other team.”
Wolff hit back his Red Bull counterpart at Sky Sports F1 when shots were fired from the Mercedes warehouse.
“Christian is a bit of a cream puff who wants to be in front of the camera,” said Wolff to Rachel Brookes.
“It’s about being punchy and it’s easy to be punchy when you’re at the top of the timesheet, but you should be a little more humble I think.”
When asked whether a protest was still in sight via Red Bull’s Wing, Wolff added: “The issue remains open.”
He pointedly said: “The last one that was taken out with the front wing flex was Red Bull, I think it was 2014, so they have a bit of a success story there.
“You just have to keep going.”
Mercedes drives different wings for qualifying ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The post Mercedes boss Toto Wolff slams “windsock” Christian Horner because of curvy wing comments | F1 | Sports first appeared on monter-une-startup.
