Christian Horner denies Toto Wolff power unit claim

Toto Wolff talks with Christian Horner — Photo: © LAT Images

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Horner denies Wolff power unit claim

Red Bull ran a new system in France

Ian Parkes

Wednesday 23 June 2021 08:00

Christian Horner has denied Toto Wolff's claim that Red Bull is now running a more powerful engine following its success in the French Grand Prix.

Ahead of the weekend at the Paul Ricard Circuit, it was revealed that courtesy of power unit supplier Honda, the Red Bull cars of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez would have a new internal combustion engine, traction control, MGU-H and MGU-K.

Verstappen went on to finish a quarter of a second quicker than Lewis Hamilton in qualifying and claim his fourth victory of the season to stretch his advantage over the Mercedes driver to 12 points.

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Reflecting on events post-race, Wolff said: "They have made a huge step forward with their power unit with the introduction of the second power unit and their race car is good, there is no doubt about that.

“That is why this is a tough one this year.”

Horner baffled by Wolff comment

Asked to respond to Wolff's remark, Horner said: “Well, we’re not allowed to make improvements so I’m not quite sure what he is referencing there. It’s the same specification as the first unit.

"We’ve run a much smaller rear wing so that is why the straight-line performance was so strong.

"Honda is doing a great job but we don’t see a sudden significant increase in power.”

Hamilton has already expressed his concerns at Red Bull's power advantage ahead of the home-turf double-header for his rivals in Austria over the next two weekends.

The seven-time champion said: "It’s a power-hungry circuit, it's got those long long straights so we could see something similar to France given the straight-line speed of the Red Bull."