As the season approaches its final few races, the pressure between Red Bull and Mercedes has been building up. Mercedes is ahead in the points, and with the upgrades made in their car over the last few races, the car is a flying machine. The sudden improvement in pace was terrifying to Red Bull, who claimed that Mercedes had found this sudden boost somewhere else, not the engines. The Brackley outfit responded to these suspicions.

At the Turkish GP, DRS was closed because of the damp conditions on the track. Still, Red Bull couldn’t match Mercedes’ pace. It even left Max Verstappen a little startled over the weekend. Mercedes left Christian Horner agape as well, but he hid it by suspecting the engine.

“If you look at the straight-line speed… it’s phenomenal… Maybe they were running a different downforce configuration, but we’ve got some speed to find.”

Before the race, looking at the stunning qualifying results, Horner had also said, “Mercedes are extremely fast on the straights for the downforce they’re using. We’ve been observing that since Silverstone. Something is strange there.”

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The Silver Arrows assure their rivals that their chassis has been the same. An engineer stated, “Nothing has changed in the calibration of the engines.” (Translated via Google Translate)

Red Bull v Mercedes battle boils on

Although Christian Horner hadn’t protested against the team, this isn’t the first time he’s found something fishy about its opponent. More than Max and Lewis Horner and Wolff have been at each other’s necks this season; such is the nature of the dynamic 2021 season.

However, Horner’s slight paranoia about the engines has a reasonable explanation. Not only have Mercedes found a new fount of speed, but their customer teams have as well. Gone are the days Williams competed with Haas at the bottom of the grid. The team now frequents Q2 sessions on Saturdays. Additionally, McLaren have unearthed pace as well; sometimes to even challenge Mercedes on the track.

Nonetheless, it’s all part of the big game. Horner and Wolff, Hamilton and Verstappen – they might not agree on much, but one thing’s certain: the 2021 rivalry will go down in the F1 history books. As we head to Austin, the greatest rivalry of our era continues.

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