Horner: “Mercedes has really done an incredible job”
Red Bull's sporting director, Christian Horner, was truly impressed by the work done by Mercedes. Even though he and his team anticipated a slight advantage from the German hybrid engine, they were astonished by its dominance.
In 2014, Mercedes broke a large number of Formula 1 records. With 16 wins out of the 19 Grand Prix races contested, the German team left only crumbs for the competition.
But among the rivals of the Silver Arrows, it was undoubtedly Red Bull who fared the best, securing three victories thanks to Daniel Ricciardo. A small consolation for the Austrian team and its sporting director, Christian Horner, who, although praising the tremendous work done by Mercedes, did not expect such domination: “I think the gap with Mercedes was much greater than we anticipated. We were afraid of facing a certain performance deficit, but not to the extent we have seen. We must first and foremost congratulate Mercedes, who have really done an incredible job with their power unit.”
Best of the teams powered by Renault, Red Bull has faced numerous difficulties in making the French engine work, for whom structural changes came too late: « We were in the worst situation with Renault, with an engine lacking in competitiveness and unreliable. But we have to credit them for improving reliability over the year. We must now focus on the performance deficit. »
Mercedes invested more strategically than Renault, Horner continues, as reported by Autosport. It’s something we realized and we pushed Renault in that direction. But unfortunately, the management changes occurred too late to impact the season, but we hope it will have a significant impact on the coming year.
From now on, Red Bull and Renault will work in closer collaboration, which should allow for significant improvement for both entities in 2015: « The philosophy of working with Renault as a partner and not as a client was what we needed because the power unit needs to be fully integrated. »
