British Team Principal of the Red Bull Formula One team Christian Horner feels that Scuderia Ferrari have got off to an impressive start in the final pre-season testing session ahead of the 2022 Formula 1 championship.
The Maranello team’s F1-75 has proved to consistently be among the fastest cars on the track even in the first pre-season testing session which took place in Barcelona last month.
As the teams moved to Bahrain for the final preparations, Mercedes caused a stir on Thursday as they introduced a major upgrade to their W13 car which now has much slimmer sidepods. Christian Horner explained that for the moment it is not easy to understand how much performance Mercedes has gained with the new unique new design:
“The jungle drums speak fairly loud on these kind of things in Formula 1 and there’s been rumours of fairly radical interpretation” – he explained earlier today – “Even so it obviously visually is quite a departure from the concepts we and other teams have taken. That doesn’t mean to say it’s naturally better or worse – it’s just a different interpretation. Of course there’s compromises that have been made with their layout to accommodate that. So it’s impossible to draw any conclusions other than it looks very different.” – the Red Bull boss added.
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Christian Horner admitted that not Mercedes, but rather Scuderia Ferrari has impressed him most since the testing sessions started:
“For me the car that looks the most settled on circuit is the Ferrari at the moment. They’ve had a very strong testing period so far both in Barcelona and in Bahrain so far. I would say they’ve looked extremely competitive on track. But you have to remember these cars are still very immature. The rate of development will be fast and intense and I expect that to change and Mercedes are going to be a huge factor in this championship, I have no doubt.” – the Red Bull Team Principal explained.
At the same time Christian Horner confirmed that the new Mercedes’ sidepod design is in fact legal, despite the fact that his team had made some accusations on Thursday, which were eventually denied: “Comments have been quoted that certainly weren’t made,” Horner added. “I think that the car is obviously innovative, it’s an interesting solution. As far as we’re concerned the Mercedes car looks like it complies with the regulations. It’s just a different interpretation, a different solution.”
Despite the fact that at this stage Scuderia Ferrari seems to be in a strong position for the start of the 2022 Formula 1 season, Christian Horner is also aware that Mercedes have not yet shown their full poential:
“It’s just impossible to tell. I think what you can say is that it’s only going to be next Saturday [in qualifying] you’ll get the first snapshot when the fuel comes out, people run as close to the weight limit as they can and we’ll see how competitive they are. We’ve got a complete clean sheet of paper. I don’t think Mercedes have fully shown their hand here. I think Ferrari are the form team you’d have to say at the moment. Hopefully we can be in there as well. It looks like McLaren have a strong car, Alpine have been quick so it’s impossible to predict.” – Christian Horner concluded.
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