Christian Horner Claims Mercedes Had It Easy for 7 Years When Red Bull Was Forced to Run ‘One-Legged’ in F1

After seven long years of waiting, Red Bull finally managed to topple Mercedes and regain their crown in 2021. However, Christian Horner claims that all through those seven years, Mercedes had it easy because they had to fight against a Red Bull side running ‘one-legged.’

As the turbo-hybrid era started off in 2014, Red Bull, with their Renault engines, could not keep up with the Silver Arrows. Apart from being slow, the engines were Renault engines wholly unreliable and the relationship between Red Bull and Renault started to sour up in 2014.

Red Bull wasn’t shy to point out that Renault had completely gotten it wrong, with Christian Horner even commenting in 2015 that the situation was “unacceptable.” Following the split of the two brands, and then trying out a few other interim alternatives, Red Bull finally tied up with Honda in 2019.

The partnership with Honda finally saw Red Bull coming back to life and after immense efforts, they finally managed to stop the Mercedes juggernaut on its tracks in a season full of controversy in 2021.

The missing piece in the Red Bull puzzle

Christian Horner appeared on the ESPN F1 Unlapped show where he spoke about how Red Bull managed to keep going during the years of Mercedes dominance. Horner explained that throughout the years of Mercedes’s dominance, Red Bull never lost sight of their target.

The Milton-Keynes outfit was still winning races every single season, maximizing their results at particular tracks that suited them. The power unit was the only missing piece in the puzzle. Horner said, “They were lucky, they had it easy all of those years when we were running one-legged”

A Perfect Symphony

As of now, Red Bull uses their own power units under the name of RBPT – Red Bull PowerTrains. With their current performance level, the team does not seem to have a single weak point in the whole machinery. They have managed to win 12 out of the opening 12 races and are aiming towards spending the season undefeated.

Every single department of the team has been functioning optimally. Starting from the pit crew to the race engineers, from the team back at the factory developing the cars to Max Verstappen churning out wins after wins. The 2023 season has been a perfect symphony for Red Bull.