Horner’s controversial statements on Hamilton and Mercedes’ complaints

Chris Homer unforgiving one He was one of the most hostile leaders of the group in the F1. When a rival attacked him, he did not hesitate to respond. And when not, he tries to enlarge his wound. The latter is what he did after F1 Azerbaijan GPsa standard. before a Mercedes who was still struggling to get up after making a mistake in the direction he had taken with his new vehicle at the start of the course, Homer he showed no mercy. In memory of the enormous controversy that took place between him and the leader of Mercedes, toto wolffin a 2021 for a history full of controversy and movement in offices, Chris he seems to never forget and continues to attack opponents. This time, he did so in connection with the complaints he launched on the radio Lewis Hamilton at this Sunday’s appointment in Baku.

“My back is killing me,” Hamilton said in the middle of the Grand Prix, due to the massive rebound his car suffered due to the now famous ‘porpoising’. This rebound is caused by the sudden loss of ground effect, the main aerodynamic basis and brings grip to the new 2022. The car floor sticks to the asphalt due to the air passing below, which is absorbed into the car. towards the track. develop grip. And either because of the potholes or because of how much it ends up hit the track, which suddenly loses the effect because there is no more air passing under it and the vehicle suddenly rises and then goes down when that effect is recovered. That, which is repeated many times and quickly, causes a constant bounce that is extremely annoying for pilots.

gg.didomi.doWhenConsent(!window.didomiBypass, ‘c:twitterwi-wUmBnnKy’, function () {
var x = document.createElement(‘script’);
x.setAttribute(“type”,”text/javascript”);
x.setAttribute(“src”, “//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”);
x.setAttribute(“charset”, “utf-8”);
$(“.twitter-tweet”).closest( “span” ).append(x);
});

gg.didomi.doWhenConsent(!window.didomiBypass, ‘c:twitterwi-wUmBnnKy’, function () {
var x = document.createElement(‘script’);
x.setAttribute(“type”,”text/javascript”);
x.setAttribute(“src”, “//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”);
x.setAttribute(“charset”, “utf-8”);
$(“.twitter-tweet”).closest( “span” ).append(x);
});

Most teams solved this problem, with the exception of Mercedes, which continued to suffer hard until Barcelona, ​​where they progressed with their improvements. There they claim they have improved a lot on straight roads, but it still appears on fast curves. But in Baku, on the very long and uneven straight, the Mercedes bounced again.

Therefore, Hamilton complained and got out of his car with problems, with obvious symptoms of back pain. Lewis said it gave him a strange feeling, that he was afraid to hit the wall at speeds in excess of 300 km / h because those rebounds made it dangerous to run so fast. And Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has openly complained about this impact, calling on the FIA ​​to act on the matter. “It’s not a muscle thing anymore. It can reach the spine and have consequences. I think it’s not just Lewis’ problem. In general, it affects a lot of others,” Wolff said.

Horner replied

As a result, Chris Horner rushed to the scene, suggesting that Hamilton’s complaints and back pain were nothing but tactics to pressure the FIA ​​to change the new technical regulations. Horner said that if Red Bull were to suffer Mercedes problems with the rebound of their vehicle, all they would do was tell their drivers to do what they do with Mercedes as well.

“I would tell them to complain as much as they can on the radio and make as big a problem as possible. It’s part of the game. It’s like someone jumped into the penalty area.”

For Horner, other teams know how to interpret regulations and improve their rebound compared to Mercedes and such a rebound is not a widespread problem. “It would be unfair to punish those who have done a decent job compared to those who probably haven’t achieved the goals a bit,” he commented.

“If it’s a security concern for everyone, then it’s something to look at. But if it only affects isolated individuals or teams, then that’s something the team could possibly face. ”

According to the Red Bull Team Principal, Mercedes has a way to eliminate those rebounds, to lift the vehicle so it doesn’t hit the ground too much. But he emphasizes that it will slow down the speed of star drivers: “There are remedies for that, but it is detrimental to the performance of the vehicle. So the easiest thing to do is to complain from a security point of view. But every team has a choice. “

For his part, Lando Norris will also be forced. “I’m sure Mercedes will harden the ground and lift the car, and that will be more enjoyable for them. But they don’t want to lose performance,” said the McLaren driver, who clarified that Hamilton will take care of it. and Mercedes to make the decision to leave. onto the track with a more bouncy car than a car with less performance but safer for that matter.