'Red Bull Spy' argues title rivals 'rattled and sweating'
Red Bull have taken a swipe at Mercedes over their
rivals' attempts to get their punishment for Daniel Ricciardo's Australian GP
disqualification increased, accusing the championship leaders of being
'rattled'.
The release of the International Court of Appeal's full
verdict into last week's hearing, which upheld Red Bull's exclusion for
infringing fuel-flow rates, detailed that in their written submissions Mercedes
had called for "a more severe sanction of a ban of no less than three
races, plus a disqualification for a further six months, suspended for a
year" to be imposed on the World Champions.
Mercedes, however, stressed during the course of the
Chinese GP weekend that by the time their lawyer delivered their views to the
court in Paris they had toned down their stance and instead called for a
suspended sentence only, which took precedence.
Nevertheless, Mercedes' active appearance at the hearing
has been viewed in many quarters as essentially the Brackley team's 'payback'
for the strong opposition Red Bull took against them in their 'secret' tyre
test hearing last season.
Delivered through the acerbic, and anonymous, mouthpiece
of their 'Red Bull spy' in a post on the team's official website, the World
Champions have now had their say on why they reckon Mercedes got involved.
'The big news we're digesting is that the playful scamps
at Merc decided to have a good old sticky-beak at our appeal and requested we
receive a three-race ban,' the post read.
'There's a few pursed lips from our management at that
but they've decided to rise above it and not comment - but down here at the
coalface you can be sure we're telling out mates in the next garage along where
they can shove that three-pointed star.
'Actually it's quite reassuring: it means we're getting
close enough to get them rattled and sweating a bit. Back in February that
looked pretty unlikely. At least that's what Spy thinks: it seems we've
undergone a change in the last couple of weeks.
'It's going to be a long time before we completely
understand this car but we've gone past the stage of just trying to get it to
work and are now into the stage of trying to make it go faster.'
In addition to tension with Mercedes, Red Bull also
become involved in a public war-of-words over the course of the Chinese GP with
McLaren over the services of leading aerodynamist Dan Fallows.
Mercedes' fourth consecutive victory in last Sunday's
Chinese GP has increased their Constructors' Championship lead over holders Red
Bull to 97 points.
Culled from Skysports
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