© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says Mercedes “obviously committed a significant part of their budget cap to this upgrade, and it’s up to a team how and how when it applies it”.
Mercedes revealed its big upgrades for the W14 at Monaco, and at the next race in Spain, the decision paid off.
At the Spanish Grand Prix the upgrades proved to be a success, as they helped the team get its best result of 2023.
However, after the race, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner took the opportunity to question Mercedes’ use of their budget.
“Well, to be honest, I haven’t had an in depth look at the upgrades,” Horner said.
“Obviously, visually, they look a bit different. But sometimes the visual things actually have the least performance impact.
“It’s what’s usually underneath the skin or the finer detail that has the biggest impact. So obviously they’ve bought a significant amount of parts.
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“They’ve obviously committed a significant part of their budget cap to this upgrade, and it’s up to a team how and how when it applies it.”
In a different statement he again mentioned his ‘budget concerns’.
“For sure they’ve made a step. They’ve introduced pretty much a B-spec car and they must have used a significant proportion of their development budget on that.
“I think that, when I look at the gap at the end of the races compared to where it was in Bahrain, all that is happening is that the running order behind us seems to vary from race to race. Fernando [Alonso] last weekend [in Monaco], Mercedes this weekend.
“It will be interesting to see how that plays out over the next few races,” Horner concluded.
