“We’ve demonstrated that you can beat them”- Christian Horner on challenging Mercedes in 2021, citing Red Bull victory in Abu Dhabi.
Mercedes and Red Bull are the only two teams to contest for the top spots in Formula 1, with the rest of the grid are in a significant deficit compared to them.
However, coming to a head-to-head comparison of Red Bull and Mercedes, the latter easily won the contest in 2020, and it is not going to be changed even in 2021.
However, the Red Bull team principal. Citing his team’s win when Max Verstappen dominated the race in Abu Dhabi against the Mercedes pair, he says they have shown how to beat the reigning champions.
“Mercedes publicly said they stopped developing their 2020 car to focus on 2021. So, we’ll see, obviously, in Bahrain, the step forward they’ve made,” Horner told Autosport Magazine.
“I think the regulation changes are bigger than were anticipated, on the aero side of things,” he said. Meaning that it could lessen the gap against Mercedes.
“Mercedes is quite a machine, but we’ve demonstrated that you can beat them – by working hard, by applying yourself to the task in hand.”
Toto Wolff will use it against us.
Despite the win in Abu Dhabi, Horner is not fully optimistic about Mercedes’ visible faults and believes that this could turn out to motivate Mercedes’ contingent.
“I expect that Toto has used that, and James Allison [too], to come up with an even more competitive car for this year. So, we don’t in any way underestimate the might of Mercedes. But we’ve always been a challenger,” the chief remains hopeful.
Red Bull with Sergio Perez has definitely added to the experience they have on the track and could pose a formidable challenge to the Brackley based team, which is probably eyeing the 8th consecutive title win this year.
