Horner puzzled by Mercedes speed after Sao Paulo GP sprint race

Red Bull chief Christian Horner underscored once again the “mind-boggling” straight-line speed of Mercedes’ W12 after Valtteri Bottas’ win and Lewis Hamilton charge to P5 in Saturday’s sprint event at Interlagos.

Bottas was able to fend off Max Verstappen in the 24-lap mad dash thanks to a lightening start and a well-managed soft tyre strategy.

But Horner was especially impressed with Hamilton’s charge from last on the grid to fifth during which the Briton, thanks to his top velocity, was in “a different league”.

“Lewis’ straight-line speed is just mind-boggling,” Horner told Sky F1.

“We’ve seen this coming for a few races now. Turkey, it started to be there. In Mexico, we saw the straight-line speed, I think they were about 14 km/h quicker at the end of the straight than we were, so it’s no great surprise.

“We saw yesterday that it’s phenomenal, especially with the size of the rear wing that they have on the car.”

Horner hinted at a potential ploy exploited by Mercedes to blast down the straights and suggested that Red Bull had perhaps a few theories, confirming also that the team’s CTO Adrian Newey had visited the stewards at Interlagos to discuss Mercedes’ top speed advantage.

“It’s something that is enabling the car to do that kind of speed,” he said. “Something must happen, because physics wouldn’t allow….

“The kind of horsepower delta that you would need to achieve that, would be pretty significant. So we’re obviously trying to understand what it is and go from there.”