Horner expects close fight: 'Mercedes is in a good position'

Christian Horner can look back on a successful Friday in Austria. Max Verstappen is having a good performance at Red Bull Racing's home race so far and looks a candidate for pole position on Saturday.

Plenty of rain is forecast for the weekend. Today we had a few drops during second practice. The weather in Austria can be unpredictable, and during the press conference of the FIA Horner tells us more:

"I think the races have been fantastic this year. Every race has been very tight between the two teams and so there’s no reason to think this weekend will be any different. I suppose the only variable that we have potentially over the weekend is the weather. As we’ve seen previously, sometimes when the weather does arrive here it happens in a big fashion. That’s going to be another thing to navigate. I think the racing’s been fantastic this year and it’s been tight and close and we’ve certainly enjoyed it so far."

The margins are small between Red Bull and Mercedes

According to Toto Wolff, Red Bull will be even stronger in Austria, but Horner disagrees: "Not really, I don’t see why. I think this circuit is likely to be very close. Again, we got off to a good start in FP1 but you can see the Mercedes is right there. It’s going to be about getting it right over a single lap and then getting the race and the strategy and reading the weather conditions correctly."

"It’s such small margins, there’s quite often less than a tenth, session-to-session, qualifying-to-qualifying, race-to-race. It’s incredibly tight. That’s what makes it exciting. I think that’s what’s motivated everybody within the team, within the factory and definitely the buzz walking into the factory on Monday morning, you just feel that energy," the Red Bull team principal explained.