Christian Horner has criticised Mercedes for continuing to block moves for an engine development ‘unfreeze’ for 2015.
He is the boss of Red Bull, the dominant world champions of the past four years whose run of success was stopped by the German team this season. In Brazil, Red Bull mathematically secured second place in the constructors’ world championship, with Horner arguing that it is the best possible outcome given the superiority of the Mercedes ‘power unit’.
Red Bull’s works supplier Renault and Ferrari are arguing vociferously that significant changes to the homologation or ‘engine freeze’ rules should be put in place in order to give Mercedes’ rivals a chance beyond 2014.
Referring to Interlagos, where Sebastian Vettel finished fifth behind four Mercedes-powered cars, Horner said on Sunday: “We had no chance against the Mercedes engines.” In Brazil, talks between the engine makers broke down as Mercedes refused to agree to Renault and Ferrari’s latest ‘unfreeze’ proposals. “I doubt the engine freeze will even be extended until July now,” said Horner. “I understand Mercedes’ position, but is it good for formula one when one team dominates and nobody can do anything about it? “Yes, we also dominated, but it was a completely different situation,” he argued. “Everyone had the chance to develop their cars before each race, and much of what we did was immediately copied by our opponents,” Horner added.
