Red Bull no protest: 'Mercedes rear suspension is legal'

Red Bull Racing are not going to protest against Mercedes' rear suspension. Speaking to Sky Sports, Christian Horner explains why he thinks Mercedes benefited so much from this system in Turkey, but not in America.

Since the Russian Grand Prix Mercedes suddenly gained a lot of ground on the straight again. Where in Russia and Turkey it was first thought that the new engine would be on a higher setting for the final races, that turned out not to be the case. Helmut Marko indicated earlier that it mainly had to do with the aerodynamics.

Advantage for Mercedes

Prior to the United States Grand Prix, images of the new suspension of Mercedes were shown. It became clear that at high speed the car sinks down a bit. This results in the same effect as Red Bull achieved with the rear wing, namely less drag on the straight.

Of course, this explains the newfound straight-line speed of Mercedes, but it can't be completely new. After all, the rear suspension is part of the token system and therefore cannot be changed just like that. ''I said in the beginning that I don't think they are doing anything illegal. We have seen the effect in the past as well, but in Turkey, we saw an extreme version of this,'' Horner commented.

No protest from Red Bull

According to Formel1.de Experts reckon that the effect is most noticeable when the car has a soft setup and long straights. When the car needs to be set up 'stiffer' for fast corner combinations like in Austin, the extent to which the car can drop is much smaller.

Horner confirms that theory to Sky: ''It will have more effect on one straight than the other. On a circuit like Jeddah, I think it will bring them a lot. Based on what we've seen now, I don't believe it's illegal and I see no reason to make a protest,'' concludes the Red Bull Racing team boss.