P1racenews AI automatic summary:
Christian Horner has admitted his Red Bull team were “surprised” to see Mercedes initially persist with their F1 car concept that had “clearly failed”.
Mercedes decided to continue using their controversial ‘zeropod’ concept for the 2023 season, despite a difficult previous year. However, they quickly changed their strategy and introduced a more conventional design at the Monaco Grand Prix after a disappointing start to the season. Red Bull’s team principal, Christian Horner, was not particularly surprised by Mercedes’ decision, as he expected Ferrari to be a strong contender given their performance in the previous year. Horner noted that Aston Martin and McLaren had similar concepts to Red Bull’s car during the pre-season. Despite a strong start in Bahrain, Horner emphasized that nobody at Red Bull was getting carried away and that it would take a few more races to get a clear picture of their performance.
