Christian Horner delivers ‘dramatic’ Toto Wolff quip over ‘very surprising’ Mercedes decision

Christian Horner stated that Red Bull were “very surprised” when Mercedes sought to stick with their “zero-pod concept,” but the drama that ensued when that decision was immediately reversed did not surprise him.

With the introduction of ground effect aerodynamics into Formula One in 2022, Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari all took very different courses in their pursuit of performance.

Following an early-season push from Ferrari, it became evident that Red Bull’s route was producing the dividends as they began to pile up the victories.

Christian Horner: Toto Wolff ‘tends to be dramatic’

Mercedes experienced the end of their eight-year streak of consecutive Constructors’ titles in 2022, securing only one victory through George Russell in Brazil. Despite this success, the decision to persist with their ‘zero-pod’ solution proved regrettable, with team boss Toto Wolff acknowledging its limited future during the F1 2023 season opener in Bahrain.

The transition away from the ‘zero-pods’ began at the Monaco GP, aligning more closely with the Red Bull concept. However, the season ultimately proved winless for Mercedes, marking their first such campaign since 2011.

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In an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com, when asked if Wolff’s abandonment of the Mercedes concept in the first race had a positive impact on Red Bull, the response was, “Well, Toto tends to be a little dramatic anyway. We were very surprised to see Mercedes sticking with concepts that had clearly failed the previous year. If you looked around the cars in pre-season, the ones closest in concept to us were the Aston Martin and McLaren.”

As events unfolded, Red Bull’s optimism was well-founded, as they went on to achieve an outstanding 21 Grand Prix victories out of 22 in the F1 2023 season. The only team to disrupt their perfect record was Ferrari, with Carlos Sainz winning the Singapore Grand Prix. However, given Ferrari’s competitive stance in the early rounds of 2022, their inability to capitalize on that momentum also came as a surprise to Red Bull in F1 2023.

Looking ahead to F1 2024, both Mercedes and Ferrari are gearing up with extensively revised challengers to challenge Red Bull’s dominance. Wolff has indicated a shift towards a “more conventional” approach for the W15, hinting at a further alignment with the Red Bull concept.