Christian Horner reveals Red Bull’s ‘low point’ of 2024 amidst performance slump
Christian Horner reflects on challenges faced by Red Bull in recent races and highlighted the main low point for the team.
Christian Horner and Max Verstappen (Via: Imago)
Red Bull trails McLaren by 41 points in the Constructors’ Championship, with six rounds remaining to regain the lead. The Milton Keynes-based team has experienced a significant performance slump, largely due to car issues. Max Verstappen has struggled with the car’s balance, making his races more challenging. However, Christian Horner has recently revealed the root causes of their car’s problems.
During the Italian GP, Red Bull Racing faced several challenges. Christian Horner revealed that the team had already identified some issues with the car before the Monza race. Despite this, they chose to run the car to gain deeper insight into the causes of those problems. While the Italian GP wasn’t successful in terms of scoring points, Red Bull gathered valuable information about the car’s root issues. Max Verstappen finished in sixth place, which allowed McLaren to gain an advantage by outscoring Red Bull.
We already could see the issues, what Monza really exposed was perhaps some of the root cause, or helped to identify the root cause of the issue.
Christian Horner told Autosport
Horner made it clear that the Monza race exposed the car’s problems, marking Red Bull’s lowest point this season. The Azerbaijan GP also went poorly for the team when Sergio Perez, who had been performing brilliantly in Baku, crashed into Carlos Sainz.
However, if the crash had been avoided Red Bull could have maintained their lead from being overtaken. By addressing the issues from Baku and Monza, Red Bull managed to perform well in Singapore, though they couldn’t match Lando Norris’s pace, who was leading the race.
So I’m taking Monza as the low point and we’re starting to build out of that.
Christian Horner said.
Christian Horner admits Red Bull have made some real progress despite performance slump
Horner stated that, compared to a few weeks ago during the races in Italy and Azerbaijan, Red Bull showed significant improvement in Singapore. The team faced their worst run during those races, which impacted their lead. However, those challenges proved crucial for identifying the issues with their car.
Horner believed they made real progress in Singapore after addressing those problems. Max Verstappen’s second-place finish at Marina Bay demonstrated that the team worked hard to resolve the issues and is now on the right path.
When you consider where we were a couple of weeks ago, I think we have made some real progress. We’ve got a vein of development, and we’ve understood some of the issues with the car. I think we’re starting to address them.
Christian Horner explained.
Max Verstappen’s second-place finish was just not enough for the team to consider that they had solved the issues. He finished significantly slower than race leader Norris, finishing 20 seconds behind. Red Bull needs to work harder on their car, prioritizing the improvement of their pace. With a month between races, they have ample time to enhance their performance and come back stronger.
Gaurang Kadam
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