Christian Horner expects Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes to be extremely ‘competitive’ at the Brazilian GP

Mercedes has caught the attention of several people in their last few F1 outings.

Christian Horner expects Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes to be extremely ‘competitive’ at the Brazilian GP

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

The Mercedes Formula 1 team has proved to be immensely competitive at the front end in the last few races. Lewis Hamilton, the former 7-time world champion, has brilliantly led the team’s charge, and ahead of the upcoming Brazilian GP weekend, the Red Bull Bull team principal, Christian Horner has admitted that he expects them to be competitive once again.

Lewis Hamilton has been in tremendous form behind the wheel of the W14, especially since the last few races, and is in real contention of snatching second place in the Driver’s championship away from Sergio Perez. Mercedes’s upturn in form has not gone unnoticed and Christian Horner is slightly worried.

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While shedding light on the upcoming event and the prospect of Mercedes springing up surprises, he told racingnews365, that Mercedes has come close to then first at COTA and later at Mexico, so they expect the pattern to continue. Looking at the Brit’s comments, it is pretty clear that he and his Red Bull F1 team are not taking the Mercedes threat lightly around the Autodromo Jose Carlos Peca F1 circuit.

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They’ve been competitive on race runs here [in Mexico] and Austin’s difficult to judge because of obviously what happened. But we expect them to be competitive in Brazil, for sure. Brazil for us is a scratch un-itched from last year, we felt we didn’t quite get the setup right there. So we’ll go and try and put that right this year.”

Christian Horner and Co. had a horrendous outing in Brazil last year

While Christian Horner has made it known that he is expecting Mercedes to be competitive during this week’s event, some of his concerns could also be stemming from what happened at the Brazil track last year. George Russell was able to come up with a surprise victory during the 2022 event.

Christian Horner and Max Verstappen
Christian Horner and Max Verstappen (Credits: imago)

Moreover, Lewis Hamilton was also on the podium with a second-place finish. Red Bull, on the other hand, had a horrendous outing that ultimately ended on an extremely sour note with both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez finishing out of the Top 5 places. Verstappen ended his exploits in P7 and Perez P8.

Christian Horner and Co. have done pretty well for themselves so far in the 2023 F1 season, but considering everything that has happened in the last few races and the 2022 Brazil event, they could be in for another shock outing. Mercedes and Red Bull will be in the spotlight during the whole three-day weekend.

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