Christian Horner has sensationally accused Sir Lewis Hamilton of exaggerating his back pain in order to help Mercedes catch up to Red Bull.
This season, every Formula 1 team has been plagued by ‘porpoising’ problems, where the car bounces up-and-down uncontrollably, which has affected performance and caused serious discomfort in the cockpit.
Hamilton and his Mercedes teammate George Russell have been the most affected drivers on the grid, and after Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the former was visibly in a lot of pain as he climbed out of his W13.
‘I can’t express the pain that you experience particularly on the straight here and at the end you’re just praying for it to end,’ the 37-year-old said following the race.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff also suggested that the injuries to Hamilton’s back mean the Brit could miss the upcoming Canadian Grand Prix, but Horner believes that the pair are playing up the situation.
Calls have been made for regulation changes that will allow teams to fix the ‘porpoising’ more easily, and Horner thinks that the comments made by rival drivers and team bosses are part of a conspiracy to force those changes through.
‘Of course, it is. It’s part of the game,’ Horner said, as quoted by The Race.
‘I’d tell them [the Red Bull drivers] to bitch as much as they could on the radio and make as big an issue out of it as they possibly could.
‘I think if it was a genuine safety concern across the whole grid, then it’s something that should be looked at. But if it’s only affecting isolated people or teams, that’s something that that team should potentially deal with.
‘It would seem unfair to penalise the ones that have done a decent job versus the ones that have perhaps missed the target slightly.’
Red Bull are in command of both championships, with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez leading the drivers’ standings after eight races, so it is no surprise that Horner doesn’t want anyone closing the gap to his team.
But the issue of ‘porpoising’ is widespread across the grid and even Verstappen has previously admitted that his car has suffered from it this season, although not to the same degree as others.
Even if Horner did acknowledge that, he does not believe that major rule changes are required to solve the matter, adding: ‘Look, you can see it’s uncomfortable – but there are remedies to that.
‘The easiest thing is obviously to raise a car. The team has a choice to do that, but it’s to the detriment of the car performance.
‘You should never run a car that’s unsafe. But I think that’s more for the technical guys – because there’s certain cars that have issues, and there are some cars that have few issues.
‘The easiest thing to do is to complain from a safety point of view – but each team has a choice.’
MORE : Max Verstappen hails ‘incredible’ Red Bull car after comfortable win at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
MORE : Lewis Hamilton may miss Canadian Grand Prix through back injury
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