Red Bull’s Christian Horner watched as his drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez took a podium for the second time this year at the Turkish Grand Prix. But speaking after the race, Horner claimed that Red Bull’s rival Mercedes had “taken a significant step” with their powerplant, giving them a direct speed advantage over Red Bull.
Lewis Hamilton – who is six points behind Max Verstappen in the drivers’ standings after the Turkish Grand Prix after finishing P5 to Verstappen’s P2 – suffered a 10-place penalty on the grid in Istanbul after Mercedes fitted a fourth combustion engine to his had W12.
But after the Grand Prix – won by Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas – Horner expressed surprise at an apparent leap in performance from the Mercedes engine.
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“Their straight-line speed has taken a significant step recently,” Horner said, “and I think while we used to be able to accommodate them with smaller wings, now we can’t get close.
“We saw that particularly at this track where Lewis in particular had a clear advantage on the straight with a larger rear wing on the car. We need to maximize our package as much as possible and like I said, it’s surprising that they’ve made the move that they’ve made with the drive unit.”
Horner called Hamilton’s speed on the straight ‘phenomenal’
Despite Horner’s comments, the Red Bull team principal stressed that Red Bull had not lodged a formal protest against Mercedes – who also supply power units for McLaren, Williams and Aston Martin – and Horner said: “Just to clarify, we haven’t. don’t protest against it. Like all teams, we raised a few questions.
“[And] Incidentally, it wasn’t just Red Bull, other manufacturers also raised questions that are raised again and again. It’s up to the FIA to deal with it, the police for them. But when you have great straight line speed, greater than with the DRS open, that’s pretty impressive.
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“I mean, if you look at the straight-line speed of Lewis in particular [in the race]it was between 15 and 20 [km/h] until after the kink in the straight. It’s phenomenal. We need to find some straight line speed – maybe they ran a different downforce configuration, but find some speed. And we have some tracks ahead that hopefully suit us, but we know Austin is Hamilton territory so we have to do our best.
Horner celebrated only the second double podium for his drivers this season
After winning the previous two races – and Red Bull has now not won since the Dutch Grand Prix – Mercedes boss Andrew Shovlin admitted the team was just happy to still have a car fighting for poles could and wins at this stage of the season.
READ MORE: ‘He pushed Lewis as hard as Max’ – Horner delighted with Perez’s defense against Hamilton in Turkey
“It looks like a car that can win championships,” Shovlin said. “If you go back to the beginning of the year, decisions we’re making on development and trying to balance the two years [2021 and 2022]one of our concerns at the end of the year was, will we still be able to put the car on pole, lock a front row, control a race?
“And it’s really reassuring that we’re now in the last six, that we’ve shown we have a package that can surpass us [Red Bull] on a Saturday and trump them on a Sunday.”
