Red Bull denies deliberate Mercedes launch clash

Red Bull has denied it timed its car launch to deliberately clash with reigning world champions Mercedes.

There is no love lost between the top teams, with Dr Helmut Marko last year describing fellow Austrian Toto Wolff as "persona non grata".

Mercedes had already scheduled a ’rollout’ test for its 2019 car for next Wednesday (13 February) at Silverstone, before Red Bull suddenly followed suit.

Marko, the top Red Bull official, denied it was a deliberate ploy.

"That was just because our car was finished two days later than planned," he told Auto Bild. "We will be driving on different parts of the track, so it should not be a problem."