“If the camera was facing the other way on our rivals car”– Christian Horner points at Mercedes’ front-wing to counter their rival’s plea.
Mercedes have openly spoken about Red Bull’s rear-wing flexibility and have threatened FIA to go to court if it isn’t solved anytime soon, especially before Baku.
However, Christian Horner has stepped in to attack Mercedes and pointed out the same flexibility in their front-wing while claiming his car passed all the eligibility criteria.
“I think you build a car and design a car around the regulations, the car passes all of the tests, all of the FIA tests,” Horner explained. “That’s what you’re scrutineered by, that’s the determining factor.”
“So I think to make noise other than that, we know that there’s other teams that have exactly the same issues that we have. You’re only picking on one component of the car,” he added.
“I think if the camera was facing the other way on our rivals car, they’d be having the same discussion with you, 100 percent. Look at the front wing endplate or the front wing flap.”
“It starts to disappear out of shot, and then reappears. What’s the difference between the front and the rear?”
Need leniency in re-design
Horner then conceded with the new checks; they will have to redesign the car and explain that other teams used the same technology and have more burden.
“Well, we’re going to have to make alterations for the next test that’s been brought in,” Horner explained. “That costs time, money and resource. So we’re not the only team that’s going to have to do that.”
“And it’s probably a bigger burden for the likes of Alfa Romeo, and so on, and there are other teams that are right on the limit with it. But that’s just one aspect of the car.
“We’ve seen these tests change many, many times, there’s a lot of noise being made about it. It’s been stoked up for obvious reasons.”