Amidst complaints from Mercedes’ principal, Toto Wolff, about Red Bull’s domination, Christian Horner has said that the Silver Arrow’s reign from the mid-2010s was like a “jail sentence.”
Both Wolff and Silver Arrows drivers have expressed annoyance at the lack of competition for the top spot in the sport today.
The last season that saw a close match-up was 2021 when Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen battled for the championship.
The Dutchman came out on top, of course, which then led to Red Bull’s current domination of the sport.
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In 2021, the Austrian team claimed 11 wins to rival the Silver Arrow’s 9 wins, while Mercedes edged the Constructor Championship by 28 points.
However, Mercedes has been unable to lay a glove on Red Bull since – Hamilton currently sits on 148 points in the Driver Standings – compared to Verstappens’s tally of 314.
The sheer points gap has led to Toto Wolff and his drivers pleading for measures to make F1 competitive again – more in line with the 2021 season.
However, Horner hit back, saying that during Mercedes’ eight-year reign – from 2014 to 2021 – the German team “had it easy.”
Speaking on ESPN’s Unlapped podcast, Horner said: “Seven long years, that’s a long time. You get less for crimes!
“We had to wait to get back into a competitive position.
“We had to do a lot of watching of a lot of Mercedes winning and so on.
“But we never lost sight of our target, we were still winning races every single year at circuits we could excel at.
“We never lost that target, it was just about putting the missing pieces into place.
“Then when we got a competitive power unit, bang, we were able to go toe to toe with Mercedes.
“They were lucky to have it so easy when we were running one-legged.”
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Horner claims he is surprised as anyone else that the 2023 season has been so one-sided.
Max Verstappen will be able to celebrate his third world championship as early as the Japan GP, with Red Bull having won 12 out of 12 races this year.
The principal remarked: “We could never have imagined in our wildest dreams that we’re heading into summer break unbeaten in both grand prix and sprint races.”