Christian Horner insists he is not wasting any time dwelling on how competitive Mercedes are, instead staying focused on Red Bull’s performance.
Having waged a season-long battle against Mercedes in 2021, Red Bull now find themselves with a different challenger in Ferrari as the sport’s new era of regulations beds in.
Ferrari, in the first two races of the season, have effectively swapped places with Mercedes having leapt from third in the Constructors’ standings to top spot.
Mercedes sit second, but have been only third fastest in races and only have more points than Red Bull because Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez had to retire late in the Bahrain Grand Prix when both were running ahead of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Although the eight-time consecutive Constructors’ champions may eventually work out their issues with the W13 and make it a three-way scrap at the front, Horner maintains he will lose no sleep wondering if or when that is likely to happen.
What a difference a week makes ?? pic.twitter.com/FllPSmgDiq
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) March 30, 2022
“They are struggling. I have no feelings about their competitiveness,” said Horner after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix won by Verstappen, Red Bull’s reigning World Champion.
“Obviously I’m focused on our competitiveness in what’s a very intense fight with Ferrari at the moment.
“I have no doubt at some point Mercedes will join that battle, but my focus is very much on our team.”
Another thing the Red Bull team principal is refusing to become too concerned about is the 40-point gap to Ferrari in the Constructors’ table, should it develop into a head-to-head tussle between those teams for the title.
If the duo remain well clear of the rest pace-wise, there will be more of a focus on reliability – which is an area where Red Bull have already had one failure this term with that double DNF in Bahrain.
“It’s still early in the season,” said Horner, whose drivers sandwiched the Ferraris in the Saudi Arabian GP with Perez finishing fourth behind Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
“Luck tends to even itself out over the course of the year so I think we’ve just got to go race by race.
“We are off the mark now, we are on the scoreboard, we have won our first race of the year, both drivers were again very competitive and we’ve just got to build some momentum.”
In the Drivers’ Championship, Leclerc leads the way by 12 points from Sainz, with a further eight back to Verstappen while Perez is down in joint seventh position.
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