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Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says Mercedes is favouring Lewis Hamilton over Valtteri Bottas to support the Briton’s bid for a record-equalling seventh Formula 1 title.
Hamilton is 47 points clear at the top of the championship after winning five of the seven races so far, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen second in the points ahead of Bottas.
The top three drivers are well clear of the rest in the standings as in fourth place is Verstappen’s team-mate Alex Albon, who is 59 points behind Bottas.
Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 after last weekend’s Belgian GP that Red Bull’s package is stronger than some people assume but it was missing out because it does not benefit from two drivers running regularly at the front, which Hamilton and Bottas provide to Mercedes.
Albon has faced intense scrutiny this season for underachieving compared to Verstappen but Horner has responded to that, and Hamilton’s comments, by focusing on Mercedes’ driver dynamic and stating that Bottas is third in the points because “it’s obvious that Mercedes favour Lewis”.
“You see it on strategy, you see it the positioning of the cars and so on,” Horner claimed.
“Why wouldn’t they put Bottas on a two-stop, for example, in Spa? That would have given him the opportunity to win the race.
“The problem is everything is geared towards Lewis this year on his record-breaking or record-equaling campaign.
“So, the reality for Valtteri is unless he qualifies ahead he hasn’t got a chance.”
Mercedes has already explained that keeping both drivers on a one-stop was to cover off Verstappen in third place.
The gap meant the team had the luxury of waiting to react to Verstappen in case a one-stop was the best strategy, rather than risk throwing away track position and Bottas being unable to overtake the Red Bull.
Bottas has only outqualified Hamilton twice in 2020 but his main problem has been failing to maximise his points haul behind his team-mate.
He was unlucky to suffer a puncture in the British GP then lose out on what should have been the more favourable strategy in the 70th Anniversary GP, but also slipped behind Verstappen on-track in Hungary and Spain.
In the Belgian GP he appeared surprised when told by Mercedes he could not use a higher mode to attack Hamilton for the lead but the team clarified afterwards it was a pre-race agreement to save the extra power in case of an attack from a rival team, for example at a safety car restart.
Red Bull/Renault needle revived
The Italian GP weekend has also featured the revival of the long-running needle between Red Bull and its former engine partner Renault.
Red Bull’s ultra-successful relationship with Renault came to a sour end after the 2018 season, when Red Bull opted to end years of poor performance and mixed reliability to switch to Honda.
It has won races with the Japanese manufacturer but failed to live up to pre-season expectations in 2020 and mount a serious title bid.
Asked about Red Bull’s slow starts to recent seasons, Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul joked on Friday: “How harsh do you want me to be in that answer?
“No, I think Red Bull is a fantastic team. But in my opinion it has missed a trick in modern F1 where you can’t have the chassis organisation and engine organisation that are so distinct, if you want to fight for wins in a consistent manner.
“That’s probably the struggle they can face in the start of the season is a demonstration of that.
“You need one group of people, one team, with one mindset and we have failed to do that altogether. Just looks like they are not able to do much better with Honda.
“It just shows that the level of complexity and perfection that is required in Formula 1 in order to have to win and in particular to beat Mercedes.”
Horner responded to that by pointing out that Renault’s chassis operation is based in Enstone, in the UK, while its Viry engine department is in France.
He also reiterated that Red Bull’s close alliance with Honda, which has a UK facility near the Red Bull factory as well as its Sakura R&D department, is akin to a works team rather than the simple supply relationship Red Bull had with Renault.
“I watched his comments, I thought was quite interesting,” said Horner.
“I would say that we are as integrated with Honda as you would be, it’s a proper partnership, and more integrated than we ever were with Renault in the V6 era – and we won four world championships and 60-odd races paying for our engines from Renault.
“So I would counter that, in that the relationship with Honda is a partnership, as opposed to a customer-supplier relationship.”
