10/03/2022
NEWS STORY
Never mind F1's boom time, one company really doing brisk business at present appears to be the ACME Hatchet Company. After all, no sooner had Toto Wolff and Christian Horner agreed to bury the hatchet over the 2022 season than they were at it again, and now, before the season has even begun they once again look to be on a collision course.
Shortly after Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes W13 headed down the Bahrain pitlane this morning, the respected German publication Auto Motor und Sport ran a quote attributed to Christian Horner in reaction to the German car's 'missing sidepods'.
"The new Mercedes violates the spirit of the regulations," he is quoted as saying. "For us, some parts are not legal."
"Christian Horner has not given any interviews regarding Mercedes' car," responded Red Bull, clearly aware that such pre-season controversy was a gift to the media, social and otherwise. "Any quotes being attributed to him this morning are incorrect."
While Auto Motor und Sport stood by its story insisting that this is what the Briton had told it, Red Bull responded: "Just so we're clear, we have made no official comment regarding Mercedes' car and will not be doing so," said the Austrian team, the key word being "official".
Subsequently caught by Sky Sports, Horner said: "I was slightly surprised to be reading comments I'm supposed to have been making, but there we go.
"I haven't paid a great deal of attention," he said of the Mercedes. "It's obviously a fairly different concept, but that's for the designer guys and aerodynamicists to get into."
Asked whether the Mercedes could be protested, he replied: "Let the guys digest it and understand it."
It begins.
Check out our Thursday gallery from Bahrain, here.