The start to this season of Formula 1 was a highly exciting one. Mercedes finally faced an intense fight from its rivals Red Bull.
According to Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, they have the upper hand in the fight for the title. However, his Red Bull counterpart, Christian Horner seems to think that these are just mind games being played by Wolff.
Red Bull seemed to dominate the opening weekend in Bahrain thanks to Max Verstappen. But, the Brackley-based team managed to win after an epic drive by Hamilton.
Red Bull had a chance to redeem itself and it did that in Imola as Verstappen got the first win of the season for the team.
In an interview, Horner explained the short-sighted nature of Wolff’s strategy.
“Mercedes has been tagging us as the favourite, and Toto is obviously extremely keen to deflect attention, but it’s somewhat short sighted.
“Of course, it’s used to try to put expectation and to try to create pressure. Of course, Toto will inevitably try to identify Red Bull as the favourite in order to create a perception of having to chase and catch up.
“When you look, they are seven-time reigning world champions, they had one bad test. Their car was every bit quick as ours in the race in Bahrain, and their tyre degradations looks very good,” Horner concluded.
Despite starting from the third place, Max Verstappen managed to clock a win in Imola. This impressed Horner and he expressed how proud he was.
“Max got a mega start and then braved it out into the first turn, and thereafter controlled the race brilliantly. It’s always tough to lose a race like we did in Bahrain and it’s so marginal [with Mercedes].
“And so to come here and get that victory, there’s only one point between the two drivers, a huge distance in this championship still to run,” he concluded.
Red Bull is currently a spot behind Mercedes with Verstappen just a point behind Hamilton. Do you think they can manage to beat the Silver Arrows? Let us know in the comments below!