Christian Horner has gently poked fun at Mercedes for their comments regarding the straight line speed of the Red Bell RB16B. With Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff both passing remarks about the 'new spec' Honda engine, after the Japanese manufacturer rolled out reliability fixes to their power unit for the second engines introduced at the French Grand Prix, Horner said that an observant Mercedes must be talking about their engine supplier.. "Yeah, we have a new oil from ExxonMobil so I think they should take full credit for all Lewis' pointing at the engine," Horner told media, including RacingNews365. "So the engines are homologated. It's the same spec. It's unusual for Mercedes to have had to have changed so early in the year as they did, they seem to have perhaps higher degradation this year than in previous years. "But, as I say, all we can do is focus on our own job, another great performance by Honda, our 10th victory with Honda now in under three years so so far so good." Asked whether he feels Red Bull's development is more powerful than what Mercedes are managing with their W12, Horner explained that he reckons the strength of their package from the get go has resulted in strong upward momentum. "For the first time in quite a while, we've come out the blocks with a competitive car," he said. "And we've managed to optimise that and tune it but you're at the top of the curve with these cars, you're into marginal gains. "When you look at the new car for next year, it goes through a development cycle, it's significant step. So it's getting that balance right between the marginal gains for this year, and the big steps for next year. But that's no different to how it's been in the past."
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