Red Bull Formula 1 boss slams 'underhand' Mercedes tactic as Verstappen rubbishes Hamilton claims

The off-season has seemingly done little to ease the bad blood between Red Bull and Mercedes heading into the new Formula 1 year.

After the most controversial and dramatic season in more than a decade, Red Bull's reigning world champion and team principal both took swipes at their Mercedes rivals ahead of this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix.

Team boss Christian Horner accused Mercedes' Toto Wolff of pressuring motorsport's governing body to sack last season's race director Michael Masi rather than admit his own mistakes.

Masi played a key role in the controversy which saw Red Bull's Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton to the 2021 drivers' championship on the last lap of the final race.

'I felt what was going on behind the scenes over the Christmas period was a bit underhand," Horner told the UK's Daily Mail. 

«The reality was Michael Masi didn't break their own rules. Mercedes had all the same strategic options available that we did, they made a mistake strategically not pitting Lewis.

»The smokescreen was placed on the race director rather than the mistake Mercedes made strategically."

Wolff and Hamilton boycotted the F1 prize ceremony in Paris at the end of last season, another action Horner said was aimed at trying to undermine Verstappen's championship win.

It is not only Horner who has questioned Mercedes heading into the start of the new season.

Verstappen rubbished claims made by Hamilton last weekend that Mercedes would not be able to compete for victories at the start of 2022. 

Mercedes has raised eyebrows by removing the sidepods from its cars just a week out from the start of the Formula 1 season.

F1 has gone through one of the largest regulation overhauls in its history, with this year's cars starkly different to last