Along with the desperate fans, Red Bull boss Christian Horner has been waiting for the new Mercedes and Ferrari upgrades on the grid. Despite enjoying a healthy lead after five races so far, Horner could not relax until he saw what his rivals had up their sleeve. There have been a lot of talks since this year’s opening Grand Prix in Bahrain regarding the two other powerhouses launching new upgrades to their cars in Imola, Italy. But the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix could not happen because of the excessive flooding in the region.
Hence, Ferrari will implement the latest upgrades in a more ideal place, i.e., in Barcelona Grand Prix, than in Monaco, which is a street-style circuit. But Mercedes could not wait any longer. As a result, they went ahead with the plan to implement the modifications in Monaco itself. However, Christian Horner had a cold reaction after seeing the new Mercedes upgrades.
Christian Horner Says, “Looks Of The Car Won’t Win Them Races”
The Mercedes F1 team is quite optimistic about the new enhancements for the weekend race at Monaco. However, Christian Horner feels that cars with good looks can have disappointing performances sometimes. According to him, what the car needs is the insides to be perfect. If the aerodynamics of the car is not at its best, then the drivers won’t be successful in extracting the most performance out of the vehicle. He mentioned that the new Mercedes car sure looks different. But for him, the cars depend more on what’s inside than how it looks.
Anyhow, Mercedes has proved a lot of people wrong about them copying Red Bull’s car design. The new W14 looks a lot like Aston Martin’s design with their side pods. The RB19’s side pods have severe undercut. However, Christian Horner added that Mercedes had made a big gamble on the W14 car keeping in mind the cost cap budget. The new design is a B-Spec version of W14, and it would set the team back a reasonable sum of money in their limited budget. Adding to that, Horner mentioned that it is on the Mercedes F1 team to extract the most of their new car.
What Is The Analysis Of The Mercedes Team After Day 1 In Monaco?
Apparently, it did not go as badly as Chief Toto Wolff and the Mercedes team were scared about. After the two practice sessions, Lewis Hamilton ended in third and sixth in FP1 and FP2, respectively. He also had a pretty positive reaction after driving in those two sessions. The seven-time champion mentioned, “I had an amazing day. Even if Monaco is not ideal but the upgrades are making me feel good.” Moreover, Lewis wants his team to build on these upgrades. Most importantly, the new W14 car has got side pods, plus front and floor suspensions. However, the seat position did not change much.
Nevertheless, Mercedes had a pretty promising first day at the Monaco Grand Prix. Hamilton was just a 0.5 second down on the leading racer Max Verstappen. George Russell was a little more than 0.3 seconds slower than Lewis Hamilton. Hence, Mercedes will need to work on the upgrades a little more. So that they can reduce the difference between them and the leader of the points table, Christian Horner, and his team, Red Bull.