Christian Horner believes four or five teams in the run for 2012 title – Formula 1 news
Christian Horner, team principal of Red Bull Racing believes that four or five contenders can be seen fighting for the title in the forthcoming 2012 championship setting off at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia this weekend.
Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari had been the only teams, competent enough of attaining victories at the Grands Prix over the last couple of years. Nevertheless, Horner feels that Mercedes and Lotus may be added up to the top teams this season after their strong
pre-season testing campaigns.
“What you can see from the longer runs is that the usual protagonists look in reasonable shape,” he said. “I think McLaren look like they're going to be competitive, Mercedes look like they've made a step forward, Ferrari I don't think are as in bad a shape
as has been perceived and Lotus have shown flashes of speed as well. Out of that you've got four or five teams that all have a chance of being competitive.”
Mercedes could hardly be able to test their car during the last year’s pre-season tests. However, this year they had made an important development with their new car W03 after the reliable pre-season testing programme and had emerged as a competitive team
for the approaching season.
Although, Red Bull struggled during the last day of the final test held at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona after the upgrades made to the new car RB8 and they could only manage to complete 23 laps while came last on the timesheets. Nonetheless, the defending
champions were still considered the front-runner for the season ahead.
Moreover, after the last test, Horner said that it would be crucial to keep the focus on making the improvements in the car during the season.
Furthermore, Horner said that they would not be latent this year after their end-to-end victories in the last two seasons.
Besides, he believed that his team was still quite young as compared to the other rivals and they were hungry for more victories. He also said that they had enjoyed their success until now which they had achieved after many hardships.
Tags: