F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Horner: Impact of Ferrari settlement has left 'sour taste'

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner admitted to feeling thwarted by Ferrari's current underperformance which only highlights the unfair wins collected by the Scuderia last year, to the detriment of the Milton Keynes squad.

Ferrari enjoyed a significant boost of performance over the summer of 2019, which culminated with wins in Belgium, Italy and Singapore.

But several technical directive introduced by the FIA amid suspicions of cheating by the Italian outfit reined in the power of Ferrari's engine in the latter part of the season, an action by the governing body that was followed by a confidential agreement between the latter and the House of Maranello that capped even further the potential of the Scuderia's controversial unit for this season.

Horner says Ferrari's dismal performance this year has left Red Bull with "quite a sour taste", suggesting that his team was deprived in 2019 of several race wins - and additional prize money - that were pocketed instead by the Scuderia.

"The whole thing has left quite a sour taste," Horner explained in Spa last weekend.

"I mean obviously you can draw your own conclusions from Ferrari's current performance but, yeah, there are races that we should have won last year arguably if they had run with an engine that seems to be quite different to what performance that they had last year."

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said in Spa that Ferrari's current woes were the result of ill-inspired decisions made by "certain members" on the Italian team. Horner echoed his rival's view.

"It's obviously very tough for them, but I think their focus has obviously been in the wrong areas in previous years, which is why they obviously seem to be struggling a little with whatever was in that agreement," said the Red Bull chief.

"I think you've got Mercedes as a clear leader, then I think Honda and Renault are reasonably close depending on circuits and conditions. And then you've got Ferrari obviously at the back of the queue."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Michael Delaney

Recent Posts

Monaco GP: Friday's action in pictures

It was an eventful Friday in the Principality, with several session disruptions but at the…

10 hours ago

McLaren facing pace and reliability woes after difficult Monaco start

McLaren arrived in Monaco expecting to be firmly in the mix. Instead, the opening day…

11 hours ago

Russell: Ferrari hype justified – ‘clearly the team to beat’

George Russell says that Ferrari’s strong pace on Friday’s opening day of running at the…

12 hours ago

Briatore lifts lid on failed Mercedes talks over Alpine F1 stake

Alpine F1 boss Flavio Briatore has delivered a blunt assessment of why Mercedes boss Toto…

13 hours ago

Monaco GP: Hamilton and Leclerc keep Ferrari on top in FP2

Ferrari further tightened its hold on the Monaco Grand Prix weekend by locking out the…

14 hours ago

Monaco Grand Prix Free Practice 2 - Results

Full results from Free Practice 2 for the Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo, round…

14 hours ago