Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner has dismissed George Russell's claims that Red Bull are masking their performance advantage in 2023. The drinks-backed squad have won all three races so far this year in comfortable fashion with an RB19 that appears to be the class of the field. But despite Red Bull's dominance, George Russell suggested that the team are masking their true pace to avoid the FIA introducing regulations that would disadvantage them, adding that drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez could probably go 0.7s per lap quicker if they chose to. Horner was quick to dispute Russell's claims, referencing Mercedes' own period of dominance that saw the Silver Arrows win all but one available title between 2014 and 2021. "That's very generous of him! His team would know too well about those kinds of advantages," Horner told media, including RacingNews365.com , when told of Russell's comments. "There's always an element of managing that goes on in any race. Because it was a one-stop race, and a very early one-stop race, of course there was an element of tyre management going on, and you could see how Checo [Perez] wasn't hanging about. "He wasn't cruising around, or holding back seven-tenths a lap because he didn't want to show it. The grid was certainly a little bit closer here."
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