The Formula 1 cars hop, which causes physical pain in the drivers. Mercedes wants new rules, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner sees them as a diversionary maneuver. His racing team clearly leads both World Championship rankings – which doesn’t stop him from scolding the competition.
Christian Horner likes to slip into the role of the antagonist. The Red Bull team boss knows that Formula 1 generates more attention when there is a bang between people. He particularly enjoys looking for (public) arguments with Mercedes. The team that, following the dominance of the Sebastian Vettel/Red Bull era, had won every world title since 2014 before Max Verstappen finally broke the silver winning streak last season. However, this does not seem to lead to any mildness in Horner, as his reaction to the massive back pain that made it visibly difficult for Lewis Hamilton to get out of the car at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix shows.
“In the end you just pray that it’s over,” Hamilton said in Baku after being rocked for 51 laps by the rocking Mercedes. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff even feared his driver could miss the upcoming race in Canada, which Hamilton ruled out a few hours later. Nevertheless, in relation to the porpoising, the hopping of the 2022 cars, he radioed to the pits: “Please let us change something in any case.” In all these and similar statements, Horner sees not only concerns about health, but also tactical calculations.
Horner is rarely at a loss for clear words.
(Photo: IMAGO/HochZwei)
“If I wanted the rules to be changed,” Horner said, according to Dutch TV broadcaster NOS, “then I would whine on the team radio and make it a really big deal.” Since this season, the ground effect has been permitted again in Formula 1, the generation of contact pressure on the underbody. However, in all cars so far, this has meant that the air flow on the underbody alternately breaks off and starts again, especially on straights, which causes it to rock up and down, which is extremely uncomfortable in the cockpit. Vettel said in Baku that the pilots thought it was unthinkable “that we’ve been driving around like this for four years”.
A fine for good work?
Horner, on the other hand, strictly rejects the rule changes that are being discussed and sometimes called for by more and more sides. It cannot be overlooked that “it is very uncomfortable”, especially in the Mercedes. However, he also says that there is a very simple solution. Namely setting the vehicle higher, i.e. increasing the ground clearance. “Only this solution is at the expense of the speed of the car,” said the Red Bull boss, whose pilots Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez are hardly affected by this and are sovereignly leading the World Cup after the toughest competitor Ferrari accepted two failures in Baku had to.
Horner therefore says about Mercedes, which has lost its top position of the past eight years and is currently only the third strongest force due to the rule changes: “They hope that the rules will be adjusted.” In return, the Silver Arrows would present porpoising “as a security problem”. In fact, hopping can be reduced by raising the chassis, but the performance loss is enormous.
The Brit, who has been leading the Red Bull team that emerged from the takeover of the Jaguar racing team since 2005, considers it unnecessary to adjust the technical specifications. This would penalize those who did a good job. He is undoubtedly referring to his own employees, after all, Red Bull has won six of the eight races of the season so far and managed to get both drivers on the podium in five of the last six Grands Prix. In the Constructors’ Championship, the racing team financed by the Austrian right-wing populist Dietrich Mateschitz is visibly ahead of the competition.
Horner: If you think it’s too dangerous, you don’t have to get in
The numerous complaints from other teams leave Horner cold. Alpha Tauris Pierre Gasly, for example, described leaving even more distance in duels because the steering wheel sometimes even moves by itself due to the vibrations. According to racefans.com, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz said the drivers had already approached the FIA: “We asked the FIA to take a look, not to listen too much to the teams and instead to listen to us because we said that we’ve all got to a point where we can’t handle it anymore.”
George Russell, the only driver this season in the top five in every race of the season and clearly stronger than Hamilton in the internal Mercedes duel, even warned of worse. “I think it’s only a matter of time before there’s a major incident,” said the Briton, according to motorsport.com. “Many of us can hardly keep the car in a straight line over these bumps.” Fernando Alonso, who has been active in Formula 1 since 2001, even said that driving the current cars was “the worst in the last 20 years”.
Although Horner does not explicitly contradict all of these requests to speak, he sees no reason to make any changes because of them. “If it was a real safety issue for the whole field, then it should be addressed.” But “if it’s just affecting individuals or teams, then it’s something that the team should probably address.” Addressing the drivers, the Brit says: “You have the choice of getting into the car or not. If it’s really unsafe, you don’t race.” Instead, he chose a football comparison to classify the Mercedes demands. “It’s part of the game,” said the 48-year-old: “It’s like someone in the penalty area making a swallow and demanding a penalty.”