Mercedes announced on Friday ahead of the United States Grand Prix that Valtteri Bottas would receive a third grid penalty in four races after installing a new engine in his car as the team solves an ongoing problem.
The Mercedes customer teams Aston Martin and Williams were also forced to motor penalties this weekend, so that Sebastian Vettel and George Russell are at the end of the grid. Bottas will drop five places from his qualifying position.
Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff said on Friday that the topic was “not trivial” and had the manufacturer “hold on forever with delivering to all customers” in order to understand the problem.
Any setbacks in engine reliability could have a particular impact on Lewis Hamilton, who is just six points behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the top of the drivers’ standings with six races remaining.
Horner said that reliability “could play a key role” in the championship, adding, “Reliability can be critical. You have to be at the end of the race. “
Bottas has acquired a new engine in both Italy and Russia, which means that the additional engine in Austin will provide him with a large pool of available parts at the end of the season.
Horner felt that Mercedes was “weighing the risk against the reward” of penalties against extra performance by having more engines to cover the remaining races, but said it was “very unusual for Mercedes” to agree with reliability battle.
“They’ve obviously been the benchmark of reliability for the past six or seven years,” Horner said.
“So it’s unusual for you to find yourself in this situation.”
Verstappen switched to a new engine at the Russian Grand Prix, which Red Bull hoped would see him by the end of the season without further penalties.
“We hope we can get away with what we have by the end of the year, but that’s our assumption,” Horner said.
“I think situations can change really quickly, as you can see, so you can never say never.
“But we have the feeling that the Sochi penalty put us back in a reasonable position.”
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In 2021, Red Bull entered the F1 battle for the title for the first time since its last championship win eight years ago, partly supported by wins from engine partner Honda for this season.
In addition to Verstappen’s own title efforts, Red Bull is 36 points behind Mercedes on the hunt for the constructors’ championship.
“I think we’re pushing them hard this year,” said Horner.
“We really gave everything this season and managed to make life difficult for them in pretty much every race.
“So when you consider how dominant they have been over the past seven years and that this car is largely a holdover from last year’s car, which was arguably their most dominant car, this is proof of that [Red Bull] Team.
“They put themselves in that position to challenge them with six races to go.”
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