Mercedes may have participated in the 2022 F1 season with hopes of filling the wound wholes of 2021, but unfortunately, even bigger wounds got added. The team barely saved their pride with George Russell’s maiden win. Why the hell that happened? Instead of winning the lost title, why Lewis Hamilton had to face another “worst” failure this year? The question has got answers from different points of view. Today, we will discuss what Red Bull’s principal thinks is the reason for Mercedes’s downfall this season.
Last year things went a little chaotic in Formula One. From the very beginning till the last moment of the season, everyone thought Lewis Hamilton would break his own and Schumacher’s record of 7 titles. But in the final lap of the race, Max Verstappen apparently took advantage of the unfair FIA decision and overpassed Hamilton to become the first-time F1 world champion finally.
Mercedes fans were silent; even the commentators were shocked to announce that it was not Hamilton but Verstappen, the winner of the season. But it is what it is. However, it left a huge impact on Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff. Team Mercedes never ever imagined such a scenario. The team went into a kind of depression, as suggested by Red Bull’s principal, Christian Horner.
Christian Horner Claims Mercedes Had A Hangover Of Last Year’s Failure Which Made Them Suffer Also This year.
In a recent interview done by GPfans, he explained that Mercedes had never thought that the 2021 season would go the way it went. The Red Bull boss believes that the loss left a wound in the Silver Arrows, which probably had side effects this season. As a result, Mercedes could not perform to their standards. “Mercedes would never have believed it [how bad the past two seasons went]. I think that, especially off the back of the last year. The 2021 championship fight took so much energy that Mercedes had its hangover [till this year].”
However, Christian Horner is happy that Mercedes lost, which finally returned Red Bull to the pace it once had. The boss of the two times consecutive F1 world champion team is very much proud of his drivers and the members who together made Red Bull the strongest. Horner explained, “I am just incredibly proud of the whole Red Bull team, how they raised the bar again and came back fighting, and adapting to the regulations with being strategically sharp”.
Later the Red Bull boss claimed that his team was where it needed to be. And Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez just did an amazing role whenever they got the chance to do so. That is the reason behind the team’s massive victory. Christian Horner believed that 2022 was the first time when Mercedes did not have a dominant car. And by being able to beat the most dominant team of f1 d=for two consecutive years, Red Bull recorded an indeed incredible performance.