Christian Horner Tries Hard but Fails to Refuse with Lewis Hamilton’s ‘Tougher Teammate’ Comment on Max Verstappen

Sabyasachi Biswas | 02/09/2023
Christian Horner Tries Hard but Fails to Refuse with Lewis Hamilton’s ‘Tougher Teammate’ Comment on Max Verstappen

Amid Max Verstappen’s fascinating run of nine wins in a row, Lewis Hamilton has claimed that Verstappen never had teammates like he had in his team. Now, as per Sky Sports, Christian Horner while addressing the comments of the Mercedes driver tried hard to disagree but eventually ended up agreeing.

The comment from Hamilton, who recently renewed his Mercedes contract, has come after the Red Bull driver won 11 races this season out of 13 rounds. Comparatively, his teammate Sergio Perez could only manage to win two despite having the same RB-19 underneath him.

As the winning ratio is already crystal clear that Perez has been no match to his teammate in 2023, the Red Bull boss couldn’t argue against Hamilton’s teammate. That too against the likes of Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, and Fernando Alonso who are all F1 world champions.

Christian Horner tries hard but fails against Lewis Hamilton

During a recent interview with Sky Sports and Radio 1 Sport, Horner was asked to comment on Hamilton’s statement. The comment where the seven-time world champion talked about having tougher teammates like Rosberg or Bottas.

Answering the question, the British boss said, “I mean, he’s had several teammates obviously, and he always had the upper hand on his teammates, but it’s just not about competing against his teammate.”

Following this, he added, “It is about competing against the rest of the field as well. So I think Max is clearly demonstrating what he is capable of that some drivers might not even want to drive alongside him.”

Horner’s statement is believed to be weak in this case, which is not the usual case. This can clearly mean the Red Bull honcho indirectly accepted Hamilton’s statement. Admittedly, the defending champion has been incredibly well against all his teammates in the team. Such as Daniel Ricciardo, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly, and now Sergio Perez, who were often not up to the mark.

Does Red Bull actually build their car around Max Verstappen?

There have been lots of talks regarding Red Bull providing impetus to Max Verstappen by building the car around it. However, there have been mixed reactions to it as few believe in this theory, and few don’t.

Nevertheless, according to the former Red Bull driver Alex Albon, he believes that the Austrian team indeed designs its cars to suit the Dutchman. Therefore, Verstappen’s teammates always need to adapt to the car and then have to extract the performance.

Even Marc Priestly as per GP Blog said the same thing regarding this. Most importantly, Red Bull driver Sergio Perez too often complained about how he usually struggles to find the grip and the balance of the car. All in all, Red Bull building their car around Verstappen will always be a controversial topic.

Post Edited By: Pritam Priyedarshi
Christian Horner Lewis Hamilton Max Verstappen Sergio Perez

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Sabyasachi Biswas

Sabyasachi Biswas is an F1 journalist at The SportsRush. With over one and a half decades of love for the sport and five years of experience in the field, he dreams to be a regular at the paddock when the lights go out. A Red Bull fan and F1 fan in general over the years, he enjoyed watching Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen dominate the track. Apart from F1, he's also a big-time Madridista and Federer fanatic. He was a sub-junior level footballer, won inter-district quizzes and debate competitions back in school. A travel freak throughout, he tries different cuisines and learns new cultures whenever he's away from the keyboard.

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