Formula 1

Red Bull attacks and says W13 quiques are "Mercedes' fault, not the regulation's".

Red Bull boss Christian Horner questioned Mercedes' good performance at the Canadian GP, saying that the porpoising hitting the W13 is the fault of the concept developed by the rival

The apparent unity between Toto Wolff and Christian Horner against the FIA's (International Automobile Federation) decision to determine "technical guidelines" for Formula 1 grid cars with the season underway lasted until the Canadian Grand Prix, held on Sunday (19). After seeing Lewis Hamilton reach the podium, with George Russell following in his wake, the Taurus boss questioned the constant complaints from the silverware against the 2022 regulations, saying that the big problem, in fact, is Mercedes itself.

The controversy surrounding porpoising - the clicking of cars at high speeds - gained even more momentum after the Azerbaijan GP, mainly because Mercedes, which is the team that suffers most from the effect resulting from the return of the ground effect, received support from other voices, including Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. The FIA then decided to act, announcing that it would set limits on vertical oscillations, even with the 2022 World Championship on the eve of its ninth round.

The cordiality between Wolff and Horner lasted until the Canadian GP (Photo: Red Bull Content Pool / Getty Images)

Before the race in Montreal, both Horner and Wolff were asked about the position of the world's governing body of motorsport and agreed that the measure needs to be further studied and that it will be difficult to regulate. And both said that the ground effect was the reason for the problem.

But it only took a good weekend from the rival for Horner to change his speech. "He [Wolff] is campaigning to change the rules. That's a bit ironic, because here [in Canada], Mercedes jumped a lot less and were quite fast. I think their concept is the problem, not the regulations," the Austrian team boss told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

The FIA said it would use the weekend in Montreal to collect as much data as possible to find a way to introduce a metric based on the vertical acceleration of the car that will give an acceptable quantitative limit for vertical oscillations. All teams will have to meet this number by configuring their cars to suit.