Red Bull about catching up with Mercedes: "Depends on how long season will be"

Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, the new regulations were postponed until 2022, but a few months ago Christian Horner even pleaded for the new rules not to be introduced until 2023. Would the team boss of Red Bull Racing still think that Mercedes is the dominant factor in Formula 1 this season?

In conversation with Auto, Motor und Sport Horner discusses the topic. "The background was the costs. The new cars will put a lot of pressure on all teams from a financial point of view", the 46-year-old top man says. "From a performance point of view we have to manage to increase our performance in the second part of the season. It's even more important because this car is mainly taken over for 2021. And next year we want to challenge the Mercedes for the whole season."

The chief of Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon don't know if it is possible to catch up with Mercedes in the coming months. "That depends on how long the season will be. We have to see how many races there are actually still. At the moment we drive until December. That gives us time to gain as much performance as possible."

About his expectations of the battle for the world champion in 2020, Horner says: "Mercedes started the season as the clear favourite and has confirmed this role. We are clearly in second place," said the Brit, who would like to point out that his Austrian formation is in better shape than last year. "That is an improvement on last year. We have collected more points so far than in 2019, so we have to build on the positive and move the car forward."