Christian Horner expands on Red Bull trialing different spec in F1 Dutch GP, as he puts McLaren on the benchmark map for 2024.
The situation has come to such that Red Bull had to run different specs in F1 Dutch GP where Max Verstappen ran the older one while Sergio Perez took the newer one. On paper, the Dutchman ended up second, while the Mexican was sixth.
But the initial data suggested otherwise as per team boss Horner. He reckoned Perez got the better of the two package but didn’t wish to go into the details of what exactly it meant. The Mexican too was tight-lipped about his feedback in the media.
The overall picture was Red Bull’s lack of pace which Horner credited to downforce they ran expecting high degradation which never happened. McLaren were far superior and the Brit acknowledged them to be the benchmark in the current times in F1.
In fact, Horner feels lucky that McLaren didn’t score as much at the start of the season which gave Red Bull the buffer they are enjoying at the moment. But he is wary that the gap could diminish if things continue the way it is right now.
Race, how it went –
Horner: “There are probably a couple of things. First of all, they were really very-very fast, so fair to them on that respect. We took a little bit of a gamble, because we thought the deg was going to be quite high, and so we went quite a lot on the downforce level to maximum downforce. That was a little bit of a gamble, in that if the deg had been higher, we felt it would have helped with the deg. As it turned out, the deg was low, very low, and it just made us slow on the straight line with Max. So he did the hard part at the start and made a great start, led obviously into the first corner, was able to break the DRS. But pretty early on you could see Lando was very comfortable behind him. And then obviously passed him pretty easily with a straight line deficit that we had, and the speed that he had.
“And then to be honest with you, his pace thereafter, he was just managing the race. From that point, Max’s objective was, he knew he couldn’t beat Lando. He couldn’t beat him. The most important thing that we discussed before the race, if we can’t beat them, make sure we beat the rest of the field. At one point I think we were concerned about Piastri coming up very quickly, passing Russell and then getting onto the back of Leclerc. But then he started to run out of pace, and we had that reasonably covered. I think the benefit that we’ve run today is we’ve run both cars in different specs, so we’ve taken a lot of data out. But it’s important now that we understand and use that data and the driver feedback. Max is very clear on where he feels the issues are on where we need to improve.”
Different specs, feedback –
Horner: “We’ve run the cars in different specifications, and I think that that has actually given us quite a lot of valuable info. I think that the driver’s feedback has been very positive into that as well, in terms of what they’re feeling from the different setups. So I think it, hopefully, now gives a real direction for the engineering group. I think it was clear that Checo’s race package got the better of the two. But we’ve got all 72 laps of data, across two different compounds of tyres now, to compare that info.”
McLaren benchmark, luck –
Horner: “Based on [the] performance, if it was like that at the next nine races, yes, it would be very, very difficult. But it’s the fourth time this year, only the fourth time, that Max’s points lead had reduced. It’s only Lando’s second win. But we know we have to find performance. So we were 78 points, now we’re 70 ahead. We want to make sure that we extend the lead, not see it continuously diminish. I think McLaren, they made a step a little while ago and their car here particularly with Lando was very impressive. So, we need to understand where and address our deficit. The McLaren has been the benchmark car over the last few races, that’s clear in terms of pace. They’ve been that the last couple of races. Certainly in Hungary they were very competitive. Spa it was Mercedes. Here, Lando in particular was very, very strong. Definitely they have the fastest car at the moment.
“We have to respond to that. It’s not rocket science, there’s no silver bullets in this business. It’s a matter of understanding the problem, addressing the problem and then implementing fixes to it. As I said, we’re very acutely aware that we need to respond to that, and everybody in Milton Keynes is working incredibly hard to address that. “We’re lucky that they underperformed in the early part of the year. We’ve got a 70-point buffer [in the drivers’ standings], but that can diminish pretty quickly. It’s remarkable that that’s only Lando’s second win in that car. He’s driving well, he’s finding confidence. The pressure is on us to respond. We’re used to being in championship fights over the years and we’ll dig deep. We’re going to fight with everything we’ve got over the remaining nine races.”
Things right now –
Horner: “Well, it just shows that things have moved very quickly. I mean, we were winning races by 20, 25 seconds and Stefano [Domenicali] was asking us to slow down in the first five races. It can change very quickly and that means it can change back the other way as well. We know we’ve got an issue. You can hear that Max didn’t feel that the car was responding to what he wanted. We’ve obviously got to be able to manifest that into a setup that works these tyres across all conditions. McLaren did that with Lando. We weren’t able to, but we limited the damage by ‘if you can’t win it, finish second’.”
Situation, handling it –
Verstappen: “ I don’t know. I mean, we just need to figure out our balance issues. I think that will already help a lot also with deg. Of course, in Monza, a lot is new. You know, tarmac, kerbs, even the layout in Turn 1, 2. So also that we need to understand a bit more. But, yeah, we know that we have quite a bit of work to do. It wasn’t there in the first few races. But yeah, something in the car has made it more difficult to drive. And it’s very hard to pinpoint where that is coming from at the moment. And yeah, that is then hurting, of course, our one lap performance, but also our long run.
“And I mean, that happens, right? I mean, I’ve had a lot of good years. I mean, some people have never won a race in their career, you know, so you can also look at it like that. From my side, yeah, we at the moment don’t have the fastest car. We have some issues that we have to solve and we are working on that. That’s the only thing I can say about that. You know, we’re very focused on it. There’s still a lot of races left, a lot of different kind of tracks. This weekend was just not our best weekend.”
Here’s Sergio Perez on results
Here’s Max Verstappen, Lando Norris on Dutch GP fight
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