Christian Horner jabs at Mercedes with ‘defeatist’ Monaco GP strategy claim

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has taken a swipe at Mercedes’ strategy at the F1 Monaco Grand Prix, describing it as “defeatist”.

After an early red flag enabled drivers to change their tyres, mandatory pit stops were no longer required, allowing for the possibility of teams to run until the end of the race.

Most of the field did, including Mercedes’ George Russell, who finished fifth and one place ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was one of the few who pitted.

Russell was told to manage his pace throughout the early stages before pushing later on after he successfully retained track position over Verstappen following the Dutchman’s pit stop.

After the fourth race of the season in Japan, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff declared that the title race was already over. After Sunday’s result, Verstappen holds a  31-point advantage in the championship.

Asked if he thinks Wolff had been too quick to suggest that Verstappen already had the title wrapped up, and if he can yet be challenged, Horner replied: “Yeah, I think so. Perhaps not with Mercedes.

“But I think with Ferrari and McLaren certainly look competitive, they cannot be discounted. It’s a long, long championship and obviously they’ve taken a reasonable chunk of points today.

“I didn’t really understand Mercedes race today, it was a hugely conservative race by George, to give up so much time and then go so fast at the end of the race, it didn’t really make a lot of sense.

"But I don’t think it would’ve changed…they weren’t going to overtake anybody, it was just a very defeatist race to try and defend fifth.”

Horner also downplayed comments made by a frustrated Verstappen throughout the Monaco weekend.

“Listen to Max's comments over the last 10 years. He's just very direct, he's very forthright and it just focuses everyone,” he said.

“There was a very good debrief yesterday, following qualifying were we really dug into right, what exactly is the sensation from the driver. 

“He put a big effort into spending the time with the engineers yesterday evening. There's no silver bullet, it's just about working hard and understanding it.”

Commenting on his race, Russell said: ”It was a long, old race, a strange race. The first 30 laps we were tootling around.

"When Max pitted I put my foot down and it was only afterwards I realised how much we closed the gap on the Ferrari and McLarens. I was really pleased about that.

"Max put me under a bit of pressure but it was pretty under control.

"When the red flag came out, it was frustrating for everybody. The only hope of a good race in Monaco was a bit of spiciness with strategy but then strategy was out of the window. We got the maximum we could."