Formula 1: Christian Horner pokes fun at Lewis Hamilton

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner poked fun at four-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton following the Belgian Grand Prix.

Following the dominant performance of Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastien Vettel in Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton, who finished 11.061 points behind his fellow four-time Formula 1 champion in second place, was not too pleased.

Hamilton started the 44-lap race around the 19-turn, 4.352-mile (7.004-kilometer) Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps from the pole position, but on the first lap of the race, Vettel passed him and never looked back.

Vettel pulled off this pass on Kemmel Straight between turns four and five, and Hamilton claimed that he was able to pull off this pass “like I wasn’t even there.” Vettel went on to lead all 44 of the race’s laps.

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Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen finished the race in third place more than 37 seconds ahead of fourth place finisher Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes, but he did not finish anywhere near the top two drivers. More than 20 seconds separated him from Hamilton in second.

As a result, Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner was asked whether or not the ninth place finish of Pierre Gasly, who drives for Scuderia Toro Rosso, the Red Bull Racing junior team that are in their first season using Honda engines, in this race is anything to take confidence from moving forward since Red Bull Racing are set to end their 12-year partnership with Renault by switching from Renault engines to Honda engines beginning in 2019.

In answering this question, Horner referenced that fact that Mercedes and Ferrari are still well ahead of where Red Bull Racing would like to be as far as performance goes. In doing so, he poked fun at Hamilton for “moaning” about the position that Ferrari are in and sarcastically stated that he nearly got his violin out as a result of it.

Here is what Horner had to say about the matter, according to Planet F1.

"“[Honda] need to make a step. As you can see, Ferrari and Mercedes…just to hear Lewis moaning about Ferrari, I nearly got my violin out! But the gap is significant. I think if we just close that, and Honda are making great progress, they’re scoring points regularly, Pierre [Gasly] has been very, very upbeat about them and you can see they’re making headways.”"

Hamilton, who has won three of the last four Formula 1 championships, still leads the driver standings by 17 points (231 to 214) over Sebastian Vettel in second place and Mercedes still lead the constructor standings by 15 points (375 to 360) over Ferrari in second, but after Vettel’s dominant performance in Sunday’s race, it became clear that Hamilton is concerned.

Horner showed him no sympathy.

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Will Lewis Hamilton be able to extend his lead in the driver standings over Sebastian Vettel once again, or will Christian Horner need to bring his violin along to each of the remaining eight races on the 21-race 2018 Formula 1 schedule? The next race, the Italian Grand Prix, is scheduled to take place this Sunday, September 2, and it is set to be broadcast live on ESPN2 beginning at 9:10 a.m. ET from Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Monza, Italy.

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