Even after seeing the sprint qualifying race for the Brazilian Grand Prix, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is amazed by the top speed of Mercedes. As far as he is concerned, this is not new, but it is something he would like to understand more about.
“The straight-line speed of Lewis (Hamilton, ed.) in particular is astonishing. But we lost it at the start. They took the gamble to start on soft tires while we started on medium tires. We also had a problem with the gear sync, but we will also be on the front row of the grid tomorrow and have two more points. We like to pocket it and tomorrow it will be a different race when it gets a lot warmer.”
Asked about where Mercedes’ top speed comes from and whether it could really pose a threat to Red Bull in the race, Horner says it comes as no surprise: “We’ve been seeing it for a few races, starting in Turkey. In Mexico, we saw top speeds that were maybe 14 km/h higher than ours, so this doesn’t surprise us.”
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Horner cannot explain Mercedes speed (yet)
“That speed is really phenomenal, especially given the size of that rear wing (and how much downforce it would generate, ed.)”, continues Horner. But how can it be? “It’s something that allows Mercedes to reach these speeds. Something is going on, because natural laws alone cannot explain this.”
“Otherwise you have to have that much horsepower to get this done,” said Horner, whose conclusion is clear: “We have to understand what it is and work from there.”
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