Christian Horner says there is a ‘sour taste’ in his mouth due to the saga surrounding the legality of Scuderia Ferrari’s power units in 2019, with the Italian team obviously struggling this past weekend at Spa-Francorchamps compared to twelve months ago.
Just last year, Ferrari had by far the best power unit on the grid and locked out the front row for the Belgian Grand Prix, but in 2020, they qualified down in thirteenth and fourteenth place, and finished in the same places, albeit the other way around from how they started.
The FIA conducted an investigation over the winter and a settlement was reached between them and Ferrari, the terms of which have never been disclosed publicly. However, the lack of pace this year has hinted to Horner, the Team Principal at Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, that the power unit may not have been legal last year.
This speculation, for Horner, means that Red Bull could have missed out on race wins that were otherwise denied to them thanks to an illegal engine.
“The whole thing has left quite a sour taste,” Horner is quoted as saying by Racer.com. “I mean obviously you can draw your own conclusions from Ferrari’s current performance, but yeah, there are races that we should have won last year arguably if they had run with an engine that seems to be quite different to what performance they had last year.
“It’s obviously very tough for them. But I think their focus has obviously been in the wrong areas in previous years, which is why they’re obviously seem to be struggling a little with whatever was in that agreement.
“I think you’ve got Mercedes as a clear leader, then Honda and Renault are reasonably close depending on circuits and conditions. And then you’ve got Ferrari obviously at the back of the queue.”
