Horner notices different atmosphere: 'It was very different to this one'

Mercedes and Red Bull Racing are doing everything they can to win the world championship this season. Up until the Turkish Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton leads by two points, but Max Verstappen looks to have a good chance of victory in the coming races.

Christian Horner has been through several championship battles in his life, but thinks they are different from the usual ones. "When we competed against McLaren for the championship and Lewis was driving for them, and when we were competing against Ferrari with Fernando Alonso and Stefano Domenicali, it was a very different atmosphere to this one. This has felt a lot more political with lots more going on behind the scenes," he told news agency PA.

The Red Bull team boss was referring in part to the incident in Italy, where Verstappen received a penalty for ending up on top of Hamilton's car. "I was really disappointed to hear Toto call it a tactical foul. Max is a racing driver and he is going to go for a gap and both drivers knew how important it was to be ahead and neither wanted to concede."

The Austrian racing stable is also behind in the constructors' championship. Where Mercedes have achieved 397.5 points this season, Red Bull have not got further than 364.5 so far.