Inadvertently or (more likely) by design, Red Bull F1 team chief Christian Horner has kicked the hornet’s nest by suggesting Claire Williams lobbied for the recent FIA directive to ensure engine suppliers provide identical hardware and software to customers.
Horner implying that what Williams and Force India get is not quite the same bag of tricks that the Silver Arrows drivers have at their disposal.
Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff refuted the suggestion and declared, “The rules have been in place for a while that you must supply the customers with the same hardware and software from a power unit standpoint, and we’ve always done that.”
Today Williams wrote on Twitter: “Contrary to comments made recently in the press, we refute any suggestion that we have questioned the parity of the power units provided by Mercedes-AMG HPP,” Williams said in a statement.
“We are absolutely confident that the power units used by Mercedes, Force India and ourselves are identical in terms of both hardware and software.
“We have an excellent professional and personal relationship with Mercedes, and our focus is firmly on continuing the good work that we have started, as we prepare for the final test in Barcelona this week ahead of the new season.”
Following the recent discussion on engine parity, we thought we’d get the down low from Claire earlier today:
“Contrary to comments made recently in the press, we refute any suggestion that we have questioned the parity of the power units provided by Mercedes-AMG HPP. (1/3)
— WILLIAMS RACING (@WilliamsRacing) March 5, 2018