Christian Horner, Red Bull Formula 1 team principal, insists that the team is aware that “an issue” exists. He says that the team must resolve the issue to confine the threat of McLaren.
Currently, both the Red Bull team and its driver – Max Verstappen – are leading the world championship standings. The RB team holds a lead of 30 points on the constructors championship title. The Dutch hold a lead of 70 points over Lando Norris in the driver’s championship title.
Despite a great lead, the Red Bull team failed to win the last five races. So, Verstappen has expressed his concerns over McLaren’s ability to win a race with a margin of 20 seconds.
Verstappen shared his concerns at Zandvoort after the race with press. He said: “This weekend was just a bad weekend in general, so we need to understand that. But the last few races, they haven’t really been fantastic so that, in a sense, was already a bit alarming.
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“We know that we don’t need to panic. We are just trying to improve the situation. And that’s what we are working on. But F1 is very complicated.”
Horner also downplayed the situation and believes that the scenario is not out of control. Therefore, there is no need to panic.
“Based on performance, if it was like that at the next nine races, yes, it would be very, very difficult,” said Horner.
“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.
“Obviously 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.”
Horner believes that F1 nature is at play, which turns the table at any instance.
He added: “Well, it just shows that things have moved very quickly. I mean, we were winning races by 20, 25 seconds and Stefano [Domenicali, F1 CEO] 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’.”
