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So far, Red Bull is finding little support in its quest for immediate changes to the rules. Ferrari has already made clear it is content for now, particularly as it has leapfrogged Red Bull and Williams to be the second force behind dominant Mercedes. "Our job is to attack Mercedes on the track," said boss Maurizio Arrivabene, "not to change the rules."
Mercedes chief Toto Wolff told his Red Bull counterparts to take their complaints to the Wailing Wall, and reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton advises the energy drink owned team to "hire better people".
Rob Smedley, lead engineer at Williams, told Auto Motor und Sport: "I have worked for a team (Ferrari) that dominated. Now they (Mercedes) dominate. It's the result of hard work. They have done everything right, so you just have to take your hat off to them," said the Briton.
Also with no sympathy for Red Bull's situation is Force India deputy Bob Fernley, whose calls for financial help at the end of last year fell on deaf ears. "The four big teams, including Red Bull, were adamant nothing needed to be done, and now Red Bull are getting squeezed a bit, and probably coming under pressure from their owners," he is quoted by AAP news agency.
"The reality is now setting in -- welcome to the real world," added Fernley. "You can't blame Mercedes for doing a good job. Everybody else has the same opportunity."
Interestingly, Fernley also suggested that Red Bull is wrong to blame not only F1's rules, but also its struggling engine supplier Renault, for its problems. "Is it entirely Renault?" he asked. "Their sister car (Toro Rosso) performed reasonably well (in Australia) and with two young guys in the car." (GMM)
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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Posts: 185
It's all political posturing, CH has to be seen to be trying to threaten everyone hope to get a response from somewhere. But it's really all about piling pressure on Renault in a very public way. It's just like CC-ing carefully chosen people on an a*se covering email in attempt to get things moving - we've all done it.
Well made point in the article about relative team funding by the way, and I'm glad the rest of the paddock seems to be being grown up and telling Red Bull to stop wittering and fix things on the track.
I guess the real problem is CH cannot directly control how the engine development happens at Renault. All he can do is shout, and then shout louder. All the more reason for them to get their own engine dev capability, so that they can have total control like Mercedes or Ferrari. They are effectively still a customer team, and have to work with what they are given.
Once Renault sort themselves out and RB start getting results again, it'll all go quiet.