Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner feels that Ferrari and Mercedes, two of the most decorated teams in F1 are now working as one team, pointing towards the break away league that Ecclestone was talking about a few days back.
Liberty Media’s takeover of the sport and their vision with respect to it hasn’t gone down very well with Ferrari and Mercedes.
Ferrari boss, Sergio Marchionne has warned that Ferrari could leave the sport and maybe start a new league of their own if plans are not redrawn.
Toto Wolff, who hadn’t yet spoken on the situation too confirmed that Marchionne’s statements actually ‘made sense’.
Seeing all of this, Horner made a big statement about the intimate relationship that these two teams share, even broadcasting each other’s launches.
“Mercedes and Ferrari are working as one team these days.
“Sometimes it is difficult to tell which is which. For the last couple of years there has been a very tight relationship between Ferrari and Mercedes. They even broadcast each other’s launches and things like that these days.” Horner said.
The new owners have a new vision about the sport, something that the existing teams don’t quite agree with it, with Mercedes and Ferrari being the most vocal about it. However, Horner feels the differences can be sorted out and they are focussed on doing what is in their hands, racing.
“We are focused on going racing, things that we can control, there are new owners in Formula 1 in Liberty and they have to decide what they want Formula 1 to look like moving forwards.
“I’m sure they will lay out their roadmap and plan during the course of this season and we will go from there. But of course there is going to be a lot of posturing and positioning and you can see that has already started in certain quarters.” he said.
Talk about a rival series has always been there according to Horner, who believes that the renewal process brings about this talk every time.
“Bernie knows every time the Concorde came up for renewal there was talk of a different series,” Horner said.
“Since my involvement over the past 14 years, every time it’s up for renewal, bang there is another series mooted. It hasn’t happened yet and I don’t think it’s going to happen at the moment.
“Formula 1 is and will be the pinnacle of motorsport and it is down to the commercial rights holder and the governing body to say ‘this is what the future looks like’ and then it’s down to the teams whether they want to be part of it or not.” he concluded.
