Mercedes committed a significant part of their budget cap with their most recent upgrades to the W14, according to Christian Horner, who stressed the Silver Arrows are now under pressure to make the most out of the car.
The struggling W14 received a significant redesigning before Mercedes announced their latest upgrades at the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend.
The team has already given up on their original “zeropod” design and committed to an entirely different layout mid-season, but it is still unclear how much of an effect the changes will have on the car for the remaining rounds of the championship.
Speaking in Monaco, Horner also thinks that Mercedes has used up a significant amount of their budget cap with these changes and that it is now up to them to make the most from the performance of the car.
“Well, to be honest, I haven’t had an in depth look at the upgrades,” the Red Bull boss said. “Obviously, visually, they look a bit different.
“But sometimes the visual things actually have the least performance impact. It’s what’s usually underneath the skin or the finer detail that has the biggest impact.”
“So obviously they’ve bought a significant amount of parts. They’ve obviously committed a significant part of their budget cap to this upgrade, and it’s up to a team how and how when it applies it.”
