Red Bull’s Christian Horner has ‘no feelings’ about Mercedes’ poor start to 2022 Formula 1 season

Mercedes have been struggling at the start of the new Formula 1 season.

Christian Horner has led Red Bull since the team entered the sport in 2005. (Getty Images)

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says he has “no feelings” about Mercedes poor start to the 2022 Formula 1 season.

Horner’s Milton-Keynes based outfit have been fighting for wins against a resurgent Ferrari so far this season, with Mercedes way off the pace of the leading pair and unable to challenge for race victories. The Sliver Arrows’ are struggling with their W13 car, which has been beset by intense bouncing at high speeds on long straights and which is fundamentally slower than its rivals through the corners.

Formula 1 introduced its biggest regulation change in a generation this season in an effort to allow cars to follow each other more easily, in turn allowing drivers to race one another harder. The changes had the potential to shake up the grid order and so it has proven, with Mercedes dropping into the midfield after winning eight consecutive constructors’ championships from 2014 onwards.

The rivalry between Horner and Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff became deeply personal at times last season, as Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton fought in one of the most intense title battles F1 has produced in its seven-decade history.

“They are struggling,” Horner told Sky Sports F1 after Max Verstappen won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc last Sunday. “I have no feelings about their competitiveness. Obviously I’m focused on our competitiveness in what’s a very intense fight with Ferrari at the moment.

“I have no doubt at some point Mercedes will join that battle, but my focus is very much on our team.”

Mercedes are actually ahead of Red Bull in the constructors’ standings as things stand, but they have the double retirement Red Bull suffered at the season opener in Bahrain to thank for that. Horner says the team was glad to earn its first points of the campaign in Jeddah, and believes that its misfortune will be matched by poor luck for rivals as the season continues.

“It’s still early in the season,” Horner added. “Luck tends to even itself out over the course of the year so I think we’ve just got to go race by race. We are off the mark now, we are on the scoreboard, we have won our first race of the year, both drivers were again very competitive and we’ve just got to build some momentum.”

The third round of the current Formula 1 season takes place at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia on the weekend of 8 April.