"There's not one ounce of me that wishes that" - Red Bull does not want 'heavyweight bout' with Ferrari in 2022 as with Mercedes last year

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said that he doesn’t want another “heavyweight bout” with Ferrari this season after a close title battle against Mercedes the previous season.

When asked if he wanted a much closer battle with Ferrari following Max Verstappen’s impressive victory at the 2022 Hungarian GP, Horner told Autosport:

“There’s not one ounce of me that wishes that.’’

He further said:

“Last year was a heavyweight bout that went 22 rounds. And I’d prefer not to have to go through that again.”

The battle between Mercedes and Red Bull for the 2021 F1 world championship was one of the closest and fiercest in the sport’s history, with the title being decided on the very last lap of the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

But with all the new regulations in 2022, many expected a single team to dominate once again. Given Ferrari’s early season pace, the Scuderia emerged as the favorite for the title, especially as Red Bull and Mercedes struggled with reliability and performance issues, while the rest of the grid was off the pace.

But as the season progressed, the Austrian team recovered to provide stiff resistance to the Scuderia, setting the scene for another close season-long battle for the championship. But just as Red Bull continued on an upward trajectory with Max Verstappen taking back-to-back wins, Ferrari went the other way.

Reliability issues, driver errors, and poor strategic choices have left the Italian team trailing Red Bull in the standings despite its 2022 challenger’s class-leading performance.

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Red Bull boss takes dig at Ferrari after the Scuderia lost out on potential 1-2 finish at the 2022 Hungarian GP

Christian Horner has taken a dig at Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto after the Scuderia lost out on a potential 1-2 finish at the 2022 Hungarian GP.

Following a poor result at the French GP, Binotto had optimistically claimed that his team was going to take a 1-2 finish in Hungary since the track’s characteristics were likely to suit the Ferrari F1-75.

Speaking to Autosport after the Hungarian GP, Horner said that he would never have made such a claim as Binotto did in France, even if his team had “won by a lap”. He said:

“I think even if we’d won by a lap, I’d still have always been naturally cautious. I would never make a claim that we’re going to finish first and second in the next race.’’

He continued:

“It’s the way we go racing. We focus on the here and now and take each race as it comes.”

Throughout the weekend in Hungary, Red Bull found itself on the backfoot, trailing Ferrari. A poor qualifying led to both its drivers starting from P10 and P11. Yet the Austrian team managed to recover spectacularly through an aggressive strategy that saw Max Verstappen take his eighth win of the season, even as Ferrari’s race started to unravel.

It will be interesting to see how the championship battle unfolds after the summer break.