Horner claims Mercedes are telling Hamilton to ‘b*itch about porpoising’ to slow Red Bull down

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner insists that drivers are being told to complain on the radio about their ongoing bouncing problems.

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix saw the ongoing porpoising issue appear worse than ever before, with a number of drivers speaking out over the “not healthy” problem.

However, Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner believes drivers are being instructed to complain about the problem in order to slow Red Bull down.

Red Bull are seemingly the only team to have completely solved the porpoising puzzle, with the RB18 producing some of the highest top speeds yet remaining smooth for the drivers.

The same certainly can’t be said for the Mercedes F1 Team, who porpoise more than any other team on the grid whilst also being slow down the straights.

Sir Lewis Hamilton struggled to get out of his W13 after the race, due to him suffering back pain from the constant bouncing.

The seven-time World Champion was clearly in distress during the race, with the pain in his voice being hearable over the radio.

George Russell has called the issue “unnecessary”, with many wanting the FIA to introduce regulations to address the problem.

READ: Hamilton vows to ‘do anything’ to stop porpoising woes as he admits health concern

Horner though has a less sympathetic view, with the Red Bull boss believing it should be down to the teams to solve the issue.

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The Brit thinks drivers are trying to make it as “big of an issue” as possible, labelling it as “part of the game”.

“I would tell them to bitch as much as they could over the radio and make as big of an issue out of it as they possibly could,” slammed Horner to the media.

“It’s part of the game.”

Horner reckons the drivers are being told by the teams to make the complaints, in order to get a response from the FIA.

“Of course it is,” he responded when being asked if the team are instructing the drivers to moan.

“You can see it’s uncomfortable. There are remedies to that, but it is to the detriment of the car performance. So what the easiest thing to do is to complain from a safety point of view.

“I think if it was a genuine safety concern across the whole grid, then it’s something that should be looked at, but if it’s only affecting isolated teams, then that’s something that team should potentially deal with.”

The Red Bull boss thinks it would be unfair for all teams to have to change their cars if new rules were introduced, with some like Red Bull having solved the problem early on this season.

Horner believes the issue is easily fixable for all teams, by raising their cars ride height.

However, this would result in a much slower car, giving Red Bull a greater advantage.

READ: Aston Martin make senior personnel change

“The easiest thing is to raise a car,” insisted Horner. “Every team has the choice to do that.

“You have a choice where to run your car, and you should never run a car that’s unsafe. I think that’s more for the technical guys, because certain cars have issues and there are some teams that have very few issues.

“It would seem unfair to penalise the ones that have done a decent job, versus the ones that have perhaps missed the targets,” Horner concluded.