Christian Horner takes a dig on his Mercedes counterpart, Toto Wolff, after a sensational Red Bull 1-2 at the 2022 Belgian GP.
The long-awaited technical directive came into force at the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix. The directive is aimed at countering bouncing and keeping it under control on the grounds of safety. It was suspected to affect Red Bull and Ferrari.
Nevertheless, Belgian Grand Prix told a different story.
Coming into the first race after the summer break, hopes of a close fight between leaders Ferrari and Red Bull were high with Mercedes also coming into the mix.
However, the 2022 Belgian GP saw yet another pure dominance of Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team. Red Bull managed to secure their 21st 1-2 finish in Formula 1.
Regulations tweaks were suspected to help Mercedes. However, Silver Arrows struggled continued and even worsened as Hamilton went on to retire from the race on the opening lap. Russell, however, still managed to finish in P4 after trying to chase the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.
Ferrari on the other hand was completely out-paced by Red Bull. Scuderia was fast but not even near the Red Bulls at Spa.
Horner was happy with the results at the Belgian Grand Prix
Red Bull and Ferrari were one of the teams against the new technical directive coming at Spa. Mercedes and other teams were one in favor of the directive.
It was looking that both the front runners will be affected by the tweaks helping Mercedes. However, a dominant performance by Red Bull said otherwise.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was in complete delight after the team’s performance throughout the weekend. The 48-year-old didn’t miss a chance to take a dig on his Mercedes counterpart, Toto Wolff.
“On the face of it I’d probably have to thank Toto for the TD!”
he laughed at the race end.
“In all seriousness, I think this circuit has played to our strengths,” he added. “We have a very efficient car. We’ve found a very good set-up and Max has just been in phenomenal form the very first lap in first practice.
Red Bull was in a different league this race
Red Bull team principal Horner explained the strategic call for grid penalty at the Belgian GP praising Verstappen for his fantastic drive:
“Obviously, strategically we chose to take the penalty here and 14th became 13th technically as the starting point with everybody else. Of course, Max still had to navigate his way through the pack and he did that very efficiently over the first couple of laps, so he hit the front far quicker than we could have ever expected and the soft tyre seemed to work for him as well in that stint.
“Thereafter the pace we had with Max and Checo was enough that he got past Carlos to bring home one of the most dominant performances that we’ve had as a team since either 2010 or 2013.”
When asked about the effects of regulations, Horner clarified that the team didn’t have to make any specific changes affecting the RB18 other than the circuit-specific changes for Spa.
“A lot was made and a lot of expectation was put on that TD,”.
“So perhaps it’s hurt others more than it’s hurt ourselves. We haven’t really changed the way we operate the car.
“Obviously, grounding here has always been an issue because of Eau Rouge,”
“But that’s not unique to us, that’s the same for every team.”
Red Bull leads the constructors standings by 118 points. On the other hand, Max Verstappen now leads World Drivers Championship by a whopping 93 points ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez.
Charles Leclerc slipped to 3rd in drivers standings 5 points behind Perez.
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