'He'd know too well...' - Red Bull hit back at Russell’s ‘sandbagging’ claims
After Red Bull continued their 100 percent winning start to F1 2023 at the Australian Grand Prix, Russell said he believed the team were “almost embarrassed” to unleash their full pace “because the faster they seem globally the more the sport is going to try to hold them back somehow.”
The Mercedes driver and teammate Lewis Hamilton both had brief spells leading Sunday’s race in Melbourne as they looked to challenge Max Verstappen for victory.
But Verstappen recovered from a poor start to claim another predictable win, having used Red Bull’s superior straightline speed to breeze past Hamilton once he got within DRS range.
Horner was quick to counter Russell’s suggestion after the race whilst taking a dig at Mercedes’ own spell of F1 domination between 2014 and 2020.
“That’s very generous of him,” Horner said. “He’d know too well from his team about those kinds of advantages.
“There’s always an element of management that goes on in any race. Because it was a one-stop race and a very early one-stop race, of course there was an element of tyre management going on.”
Verstappen also dismissed Russell’s claim, insisting Red Bull are not deliberately trying to hold back.
"I think anyway, there’s nothing really they [the FIA and F1] can do," he told the BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast. "I mean, we just try to do the best we can with the development of the car, but it’s also about pace management.
"We didn’t really know, I think no-one really knew how long that hard tyre would last, so it’s about just bringing it home because we had a bit of pace I think over the others.
“There’s no need to try and gain half a second a lap and destroy your tyres to the end because you never know, a safety car can happen, red flags, like we had today. So yeah, it’s not necessary to risk all that."
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