Red Bull boss Christian Horner says Red Bull have no plans to protest against Mercedes’ rear suspension ‘trick’, which came to light at the United States Grand Prix.
TV footage emerged over the weekend of the rear of the Mercedes, a high-rake concept car, dropping to the ground as the car increases in speed. This essentially stalls the airflow under the car and would contribute to a higher top speed.
Red Bull team boss Horner and advisor Helmut Marko both noted Mercedes’ apparent straight-line speed gains following the Turkish GP, with Horner then making reference to a “system” during practice in Austin.
Despite the initial furore, Horner ruled out the possibility of Red Bull lodging a protest.
“We’ve never said we don’t think it’s legal, so therefore there’d be absolutely no reason to protest,” Horner told the media.
Horner did note, however, that the system could play a key role at certain tracks during the title run-in.
After the “extreme version” seen in Turkey, the system was limited by the high-speed, bumpy nature of the Circuit of the Americas, but Horner reckons the Jeddah Street Circuit is one venue where it could shine.
“It’s something that has been used historically. We’ve seen it with them in the past, but obviously what we saw in Turkey was quite an extreme version of it, which that circuit seemed to allow,” He added.
“It will have a greater influence at some tracks than others. It was a reduced effect here [in Austin]. At somewhere like Jeddah, for example, it could be quite powerful.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff had already dismissed the “noise” from Red Bull earlier in the US GP weekend.
“We recognise absolutely that this is a sport where competitors will always try to find out whether there is some kind of silver bullet,” he told the press.
“My experience is there is no such thing. It’s always small gains, marginal gains, that have been added and then bring performance. And we’re trying to really comprehend our car better and add performance and lap time without listening too much to the noise.”
