Red Bull boss Christian Horner has told Mercedes to focus on fixing their car’s bouncing rather than attempting to change the rules in their favour.
An argument broke out inside the paddock at the weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix over potential safety problems behind significant porpoising on this year’s Formula One cars, something which the Mercs of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell suffer from more than most.
However, Red Bull have taken the new rulebook in their stride and Max Verstappen won in Montreal with bouncing not affecting his car, leading to Horner calling on Mercedes to catch up with their development.
He said: “The issue with Mercedes is more severe, or certainly has been prior to [Canada] than any other car. That surely is down to the team. That's within their control to deal with that, if it's not affecting others.
“I know it was said other drivers have been complaining. Our drivers have never complained ever about porpoising. They've said certain circuits could do with tidying up, perhaps resurfacing in places.
“But we haven't had an issue with bouncing. The problem is they're running their car so stiff. I think their concept is the issue rather than the regulation.”
He noted that he would be surprised if the bouncing issues were still a topic of conversation in a year’s time, adding: “These cars are still relatively new, I think as teams add developments to their cars, you'll probably start to see them start to address some of these issues.
“And you can't just suddenly change technical regulations halfway through a season. If a car is dangerous, a team shouldn't field it: it has that choice. Or the FIA, if they feel an individual car is dangerous, they always have a black flag at their disposal.”
Hamilton secured a podium finish for Mercedes on Sunday, ahead of Russell in fourth, and team principal Toto Wolff is confident that steps are being taken within the team to continually improve the car.
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He said: “Everybody is in a good space but there’s lots of work to do. One swallow doesn’t make a summer. We saw that swallow in Barcelona but somehow it flew somewhere else. Today, at times, we were with the quickest cars. On the second stint, Lewis and George were almost matching the frontrunners, but we’re not yet there.
“Now we should manage our own expectations and really grind away, look at the data and come up with some sensible solutions for Silverstone going forward.”
