Christian Horner slams Mercedes for budget-exhausting Monaco upgrades, claims Lewis Hamilton’s team won’t be able to bring in more upgrades in 2023

Christian Horner took a shot at Mercedes for draining its 2023 budget with the Monaco upgrade package.

Christian Horner, image via SBnation, Lewis Hamilton, image via CNN

The Mercedes F1 team has tried to get back on track after a disastrous start to the new era of ground-effect regulations. The Silver Arrows finally adopted a new design philosophy for the W14 with a significant upgrade package at Monaco. Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner reckons this package might have consumed enough of the cost cap to prevent the Silver Arrows from further upgrades in 2023.

Mercedes has improved substantially since it introduced the new package on the W14. The Brackley-based team even secured its first double podium finish of this season at the Spanish GP. Horner acknowledged that the Silver Arrows had made progress with its latest set of upgrades as Toto Wolff‘s team is finally closing its gap to Milton Keynes.

However, such a big update package comes at a high cost, especially during the era of the F1 cost cap. Christian believed that the Monaco upgrades could have taken too much out of the team’s budget for this season. He said, “They brought a B car [in Monaco], so they must have used a large part of their development budget for it”. This could leave no room for the Silver Arrows to introduce new upgrades for the rest of the season.

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Christian Horner intrigued by the shuffling pecking order behind Red Bull

The 49-year-old remarked on how Red Bull has dominated the pack since the start of the 2023 season. Yet, its rivals behind have been moving in the pecking order. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was the biggest threat to Max Verstappen for the race win at Monaco. But it was Lewis Hamilton challenging the Dutchman for the lead in Spain.

Christian Horner was looking forward to how the grid continues to shake up over the remainder of the season. The Briton seems unbothered by the upgrades brought in by Mercedes and other rivals as Red Bull still maintains a massive pace advantage. The Milton Keynes-based team will be working round the clock to solidify its dominance further.

"But they brought a B car [in Monaco], so they must have used a large part of their development budget for it," Horner says with regard to the extensive update from Monaco. https://t.co/wBvTAwTp6l
— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) June 12, 2023

Thus, Christian Horner has hit out at Mercedes for putting a large chunk of its budget on the Monaco upgrades. The 49-year-old is convinced that the Brackley-based team might be forced to race for the rest of the season without any more updates. However, it remains to be seen if the Red Bull team boss is correct or if Toto Wolff’s team has an ace up its sleeves.

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Tags: Christian Horner Lewis Hamilton Toto Wolff

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Armaan Agarwal

(2570 Articles Published)

Armaan Agarwal is a Motorsport Sub-editor and Content Manager at Firstsportz. He has written over 2500 articles with around 1000 edited pieces under his belt. Armaan has years of experience in the field of journalism, having followed Formula 1 and NASCAR for almost a decade. Nico Rosberg's title victory at the 2016 Abu Dhabi GP against Lewis Hamilton remains engraved in his memory. He started his journey with his own motorsport blog in 2017. At Firstsportz, Armaan provides deep insight into the sport for fans through his special editorial pieces. Armaan has several other skills, including social media content creation, script writing, and debating. He completed his Bachelors of Arts in Mass Communication with a gold medal from St. Xavier’s University Kolkata. Presently, he is pursuing his Post Graduation in Broadcast Journalism at the India Today Media Institute with a keen eye at the ever-evolving dynamics of a newsroom. Apart from motorsport, he is an avid reader and keeps himself up to date with current affairs.

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