Wolff and Horner at war over ‘score marks’ giving Mercedes extra speed
Max Verstappen controversially escaped punishment yesterday for his driving in Brazil last weekend, with the FIA’S stewards deciding to throw out Mercedes’s “right of review” request due to a lack of “significant” new evidence.
But anyone who thought Mercedes and Red Bull might shake hands, bury the hatchet somewhere in the Qatari desert, and agree to let the track decide the final destination of this year’s championship, were swiftly disabused of that notion.
A fantastically awkward press conference involving the principals of Formula One’s two leading teams, Christian Horner of Red Bull and Toto Wolff of Mercedes, resulted in the two men circling each other warily, niggling and probing, before descending into outright warfare, with Horner claiming that Mercedes’s pace over the past two weekends was “not normal” and warning his opposite number that Red Bull were ready to protest about the Mercedes car if they saw any more “score marks” on the W12’s rear end plate this weekend.
It is the first time a direct threat has been issued over the legality of Mercedes’s rear wing following weeks of dark mutterings and insinuations from Red Bull.
Red Bull have been confounded by the huge increase in straight-line speed enjoyed by Lewis Hamilton at the past two races in Mexico and Brazil. Such was the seven-time world champion’s pace at Interlagos, he was able to scythe through the field to win last Sunday, having
started 10th. Red Bull are prepared to accept that the speed can at least partly be explained by the new engine that Mercedes fitted to his car in Brazil, and which came with a five-place grid penalty attached, but do not believe that accounts for the entire “27kph difference”.
“The straight-line speeds that we’ve seen, I think everybody could see Brazil was not a normal situation,” Horner said as Wolff sat impassively next to him, his expression hidden by his face mask. “And yes, a new engine, we know, with Mercedes, comes with increased performance. But when you have a 27 kilometre [per hour] difference, and you see marks on rear end plates that have been marking up from wings that have been flexing… it’s very clear to us what has been going on.” It cannot be that clear or Red Bull would have protested already.
And they would not have got Verstappen to cop a £42,000 fine for walking brazenly up to the Mercedes car in Brazil and touching the rear wing, thereby drawing everyone’s attention to it.
But they think they know what Mercedes are doing. Effectively, their contention is that it must be flexing illegally under high loads as that is the only thing that can explain their increased speed and the “score marks” on their end plates, which they think must be caused by the wing rubbing against it. Wolff sounded unperturbed, even taunting Horner. “I think we’ve been controlled 14 times on this very particular wing, the FIA has all drawings about it,” he said.
“There is no such thing as Red Bull expects there to be. So we are happy to send it, cut it. We can send you one to Milton Keynes.”
Horner ignored that offer, speaking directly to Wolff: “So, how do you explain the score marks on the rear wing end plate?”
It was dramatic stuff. In fact, there was a theatrical element to the entire proceedings with the judgment from the Brazilian stewards dropping midway through the press conference, almost as if it was designed for the moderator to break the news to them live.
Again, Wolff purported to be unruffled. “Completely expected,” he claimed when informed of the decision. “We wanted to trigger discussion around it. It is important to understand what’s on and what’s not on, because we don’t want this championship to be decided by a highly controversial situation that may end up in the stewards’ room.”
The way things are going, that feels almost inevitable. A weekend with a number of interesting subplots, including Hamilton’s decision to wear a new helmet sporting a rainbow flag one day after speaking out about human rights issues in Qatar, has got off to a volatile start. The gloves are off now.
“I respect everything Mercedes and Lewis have done,” Horner said when asked about respecting his rivals. “But I don’t need to go to dinner with Toto. I don’t need to kiss his a---.” Indeed not.