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Red Bull boss Christian Horner recently reflected that his team's rivalry with Mercedes last season was far more intense and hence had far more anxiety attached to it than the battle against Ferrari this season. The Milton Keynes-based outfit was involved in a rather fierce feud last season that involved potshots in the media, accusations, on-track collisions, and so much more.
This year, however, things have been civil between Red Bull and Ferrari so far. While it might heat up as the season progresses, the intensity present last season was something else. Here's why we think the rivalry is much more amicable now.
Mercedes tend to excessively downplay the car's ability
One of the reasons behind things going out of control was more or less due to Red Bull and Max Verstappen's annoyance with Mercedes in how it dealt with the media. The German outfit, and especially Lewis Hamilton, have often portrayed a rather negative perception of the team's challenger to the media.
This was obvious in the 2019 and 2020 seasons, the extent to which Mercedes downplayed their advantage, despite utterly dominating the field, was almost comical. In 2021, Mercedes anointed both Red Bull and Max Verstappen as the favorites for the title even before a single race had begun.
It was this tactic of the German team downplaying its challenger that irritated both Red Bull and Verstappen and things started snowballing from thereon.
This season, no games are being played by either Red Bull or Ferrari. Both acknowledge that this is going to be a close battle between the two outfits and they've taken that as the foundation of their rivalry. Consequently, things have been rather straightforward between the two.
Max Verstappen and Red Bull had a statement to make against Mercedes
Mercedes had not lost a title since 2013 and Red Bull took the fight to the German giant in 2021. Every pundit you asked chose Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton as the favorites to win the title. Not only that, this was Max Verstappen's first shot at a title challenge. In his years prior, he would have a car capable of fighting for wins only on specific tracks, but this time around Red Bull had covered every base.
More than that, he was up against the mighty Lewis Hamilton, a driver who was considered the GOAT by many, who was a seven-time world champion, and who had Verstappen's number multiple times in the past as well. As soon as the season began, you saw the Dutchman with his elbows out whenever he was in a battle with Hamilton, to show that he wasn't afraid of the Briton.
We haven't seen that this season because both Verstappen and Charles Leclerc have raced against each other since childhood and are aware of how good each one is. Hence, neither driver feels the need to make an ostentatious statement over the other in any which way.
Toto Wolff and Christian Horner were battling for legacy
Netflix's Drive to Survive cops quite a bit of criticism for the way it portrays rivalries in F1. One rivalry that it did not miss the mark with is the one between Toto Wolff and Christian Horner. The rivalry goes into the past beyond the 2021 season because this is a rivalry between two leaders who have built a team with their own hands, having next to no racing legacy.
Red Bull was built from the ground up by Horner and he turned the team into a frontrunner. Wolff inherited a part of Mercedes from Ross Brawn but he took that headstart and ran with it for eight consecutive wins. The 2021 season was a battle of legacy similar to the one that Jean Todt and Ron Dennis fought in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In such a battle, it was inevitable that the two were going to clash, which is what happened.
In the battle with Ferrari, Horner is far more relaxed because in the other corner he has Mattia Binotto, a Ferrari man through and through, but in no way possessing the kind of legacy and achievements that the Briton has accrued over his career. As a result, things have been rather smooth between the two so far.
Having said that, there's only been 5 races so far this season and the battle could certainly heat up between Red Bull and Ferrari. Reaching the level of battle that Wolff and Horner reached last season, however, would take something drastic from either camp.
