“We have a new oil from ExxonMobil” – Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has dismissed Lewis Hamilton’s suggestion of the team bringing in a power unit upgrade this season.
Red Bull looked mighty strong on the straights today as Max Verstappen won the Styrian GP comfortably over Lewis Hamilton. The team boss Christian Horner thanked oil partners ExxonMobil for the win today, also pointing at Mercedes’ power degradation in the race.
“We have a new oil from ExxonMobil so I think they should take full credit for Lewis’ pointing at the engines. The engines are homologated, it’s the same spec.
“It’s unusual for Mercedes to have had to change so early in the year as they did. They seem to have, perhaps higher degradation this year than in previous years.
“But as I say, all we can do is focus on our own job. And another great performance by Honda, our 10th victory with Honda now in under three years. So it’s so far so good.”
Horner also put the focus on the rear wings, with Red Bull carrying a much skinnier rear wing than Mercedes. Mercedes would definitely want to take a look at this and come back stronger for the races to come.
“It’s undoubted that Honda have done a great job over the winter but just look at the configurations of the car.
“They’ve got a barn door on the back of their car for this race and we had a pretty skinny rear wing. So, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to work out why we’re potentially a bit quicker on the straights.”
