Red Bull Racing’s boss Christian Horner, has tipped Mercedes to win the 2017 Formula One Championship season despite the fact that the series will be introducing new rules and regulations.
Mercedes has dominated the series for the past three seasons, however it was thought that they may face some stronger competition in 2017 with the raft of changes being introduced. That combined with the loss of their champion winning driver, Nico Rosberg and Technical Director, Paddy Lowe could see them on the back foot heading into the new year, however, Horner believes that they are strong enough to overcome this and more.
“Mercedes have a few things going on with drivers and technical staff but they have a very strong team,” he said.
That said, Horner will be very interested to see just who they get to fill Rosberg’s shoes…..
“It will be interesting to see who they opt for in their spare seat because their options look relatively limited,” he said. “You give these guys (Wehrlien or Bottas) a chance. Let’s see what people can do in a front-running car. If they did take Wehrlein or Bottas, both are probably both capable of running right at the front, you just don’t know until you give them the chance, which is what we did with Sebastian Vettel, and Daniel Ricciardo.”
“A lot of people were saying we should take Kimi Raikkonen at the time we took Ricciardo. Until you give them the chance, you don’t really get to see if they can cut it at the front.”
