Christian Horner restarts Mercedes war as Red Bull deny quotes over car legality

The new F1 season has not even started yet but Christian Horner has already become embroiled in a drama over the legality of the new car Lewis Hamilton will be driving – though Red Bull have disputed the quotes attributed to him.

There had been speculation Mercedes were keeping something up their sleeve and on Thursday morning, at the final Bahrain test, they unveiled their new-look, ‘no sidepod’ W13.

The car features minimalist, barely visible sidepods and fins on the side to improve airflow, with Mercedes seemingly already stealing a march on their rivals ahead of next week’s season curtain raiser.

Reacting to the car, Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz said: ‘This has captured the attention of everybody in Formula 1 this morning.

‘If Barcelona [testing] was just the starter, this Mercedes is the big main course… this is essentially a new car for the eight-time champions Mercedes.

‘I’m sure Red Bull are thinking, “What is the benefit of that compared to ours? Do we have to worry about this?”’

Within hours of the W13 being unveiled, Red Bull team principle Horner appeared to take umbrage with the radical design, with German publication Auto Motor und Sport claiming he said: ‘The new Mercedes violates the spirit of the regulations.

‘For us, there are some parts that are not legal.’

Since then, however, Red Bull have released a statement of their own denying the quotes: ‘Christian Horner has not given any interviews regarding Mercedes’ car. Any quotes being attributed to him this morning are incorrect.’

Later speaking to Sky F1, Horner said: ‘I haven’t paid a great deal of attention to it. It’s a fairly different concept, but that’s for the designers to get into.’

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