Christian Horner downplays Lewis Hamilton’s P2 finish at the Mexican GP, says ‘they had a stroke of luck’

Christian Horner is not too impressed with Lewis hamilton's exploits at the Mexican GP.

Christian Horner downplays Lewis Hamilton’s P2 finish at the Mexican GP, says ‘they had a stroke of luck’

Christian Horner, Max Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton (via Imago)

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have received tremendous applause for their second-place finish at the 2023 Mexican Grand Prix. While the outfit has been all over the web, the Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, has made it known that in his opinion, there was nothing special about Hamilton’s performance.

Lewis Hamilton started the 71-lap race out of the top three starting positions, but when the race got restarted because of Haas driver, Kevin Magnussen’s crash, the Brit was in P3. He made the most of it on a set of mediums and Christian Horner feels that was the deciding factor.

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While shedding light on the same in detail during the post-race interviews.

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They had a bit of a stroke of luck because they went in very early for a one-stop strategy. But it is true that they had good speed and did well in terms of tire wear, as we have seen from them all year.
Christian Horner told Crash

Looking at the Brit’s comments, it is quite clear that as per his view, Mercedes’s pit wall was on point with their strategies for the 71-lap event. He sees this as the main reason for Lewis Hamilton’s P2 finish but despite this, has given credit to the German team for extracting the most out of their car.

Mercedes has fired warning shots toward Christian Horner and Co. for 2024

While Christian Horner downplayed Mercedes’ performance at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez F1 circuit, Lewis Hamilton recently expressed his team’s intention to compete with Red Bull next year during an interview after the Mexican GP. He mentioned that if they can develop a car that can match Red Bull’s performance, they are likely to have thrilling races in the upcoming year.

Toto Wolff, George Russell, and Lewis Hamilton (Credits: Sportskeeda)
Toto Wolff, George Russell, and Lewis Hamilton (Credits: Sportskeeda)

The 38-year-old is extremely optimistic about the Brackley-based team’s chances during the 2024 F1 season. Moreover, considering the optimism that he has oozed, it is going to be fascinating to see how Red Bull would turn up during next year’s campaign of the pinnacle of motor racing.

The battle lines have been drawn and with just three races remaining in 2023, the teams will have their focus shift majorly toward the development of next year’s car. 2024 could prove to be the season where Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton could finally be seen locking horns again.

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