Red Bull boss Christian Horner reveals bizarre smell of Ferrari's 2019 fuel

Ferrari

Horner reveals bizarre smell of Ferrari's 2019 fuel

Does this explain why they're so fast?

Matthew Scott

Monday 8 April 2019 12:17

With Ferrari's rivals desperately trying to work out how they have gained so much pace at the start of the 2019 Formula 1 season, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has made a somewhat bizarre revelation that the Scuderia's fuel smells of grapefruit juice.

Whether a genuine observation or a joke that's gone over our heads (we've been racking our brains!) – Horner's claim comes ahead of a Chinese Grand prix in which it is expected that the red cars of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc will be truly dominant.

The Shanghai circuit includes the second-longest straight on the F1 calendar – the longest is found in the next race in Azerbaijan – with Ferrari's straight-line advantage currently estimated at around half a second per lap over their rivals Mercedes, with the gap only widening to the remainder of the field.

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Ferrari showed their pace in Bahrain last time out, locking out the front row in dominant fashion, but their race fell apart as Charles Leclerc suffered an engine failure from the lead and Sebastian Vettel spun out of contention while battling Lewis Hamilton, who went on to win.

Auto Motor und Sport quotes Red Bull design chief Adrian Newey as saying: "We actually thought that the FIA had filled all the last holes in the regulations."

It is rumoured that Ferrari's fuel suppliers Shell may have discovered a way to unlock more pace, although this has not been communicated publicly.

Quizzed on the matter, Horner gave his slightly odd take: "The fuel from the Ferrari garage smells like grapefruit juice."

Red Bull were comfortably down on the Ferrari's pace in Bahrain, with Max Verstappen qualifying a second adrift of pole-sitter Leclerc.

However, the team's strategy won out in China last year, with Daniel Ricciardo taking a victory that might have been Verstappen's, were it not for collisions with Hamilton and Vettel taking him out of contention.