Is Red Bull bluffing to intentionally cover up their dominance in the 2023 Formula 1 season? The view is Mercedes driver George Russell, who believes that the cops’ lead is even greater than it appears: “They are definitely holding back,” Russell told the BBC podcast “Checkered Flag”.
“I think it’s almost embarrassing for them to show their full potential because the faster they seem, the more sport will try to somehow keep them in check,” said the Briton, who believes that Red Bull is currently one has a lead of seven tenths of a second – at least that’s his estimate.
Because: “Max has no reason to push, just like Red Bull.”
These statements are not well received by Red Bull team boss Christian Horner. Because after the weekend in Melbourne, Mercedes Motorsport Director Toto Wolff said that George Russell had a good chance of winning the race in Albert Park without the first red flag and his technical failure.
That doesn’t add up for Horner: “Well, they could have won, but are we bluffing? Okay.”
To be fair, it has to be said that Russell’s statements were made before the weekend in Melbourne. The last impression before that was the race in Saudi Arabia, where Max Verstappen had no problem moving up from 15th on the grid to second within half a race and fighting a virtual battle against teammate Sergio Perez.
Only the team knows how strong the Red Bulls really were there, because that instructed its two drivers to drive the specified lap times, even if these were repeatedly undercut.
When asked about Russell’s statements about Saudi Arabia, Horner called them “very generous” from the Englishman. “I mean, his team knows about advantages like that.”
However, it is logical for him that his drivers do not always set the best lap time, after all they would have to operate tire management – especially in a race in which a safety car triggered an earlier tire change, so that the drivers started from lap 18 of 50 with a set of tires had to go through.
“Checo certainly didn’t cruise and held back seven tenths of a second because he didn’t want to show it,” emphasizes Horner.
And motorsport consultant Helmut Marko also sees it rather critically that Red Bull is always “attributed to a superiority”, as he says to ‘Sky’: “It’s there when everything runs absolutely smoothly,” he says. However, even small things would be enough to make things go wrong. “And our pursuers Ferrari, Aston Martin and Mercedes have increased. You could see that here.”