Christian Horner hints at Red Bull dropping new upgrades in French GP to counter Ferrari threat
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Christian Horner
The 2022 Austrian Grand Prix was kind of bittersweet for the Red Bull Racing Team. After securing the pole position on friday, Max Verstappen won the sprint race on saturday. However, things were a bit different on sunday. Red Bull suddenly didn’t seem to have the pace as the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz dominated the race. Not only was the Red Bull slower than the Maranello outfit, Max Verstappen also seemed to struggle with tire degradation throughout the race. The Monegasque driver Leclerc, overtook Verstappen thrice during the duration of the race and finally came home to finish first and win the Austrian Grand Prix.
Verstappen managed to finish second after Carlos Sainz had his engine blow up in flames and had to DNF from the race. Verstappen also managed to get the extra point for the fastest lap of the race, so overall it was pretty good damage limitation for the team. “Even on a bad weekend by our standards, we only lost five points,” Verstappen summed up.
Red Bull hopes to break Ferrari’s race winning momentum by bringing in new upgrades
The situation for Ferrari was quite similar to Silverstone. They had the perfect opportunity to get an amazing haul of points and consolidate their chase in the Constructor’s World Championship. But, in Silverstone they messed up the strategy and couldn’t maximize on the opportunity, and in Spielberg reliability issues led to Carlos Sainz’s engine catching fire. “Ferrari could very well have had a one-two,” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner. “In that respect it was successful damage limitation for us.”
It was a sadder story for the other Red Bull driver Sergio Perez, as he didn’t get to finish the race at all. He was clipped by George Russell while trying to overtake him on the outside at Turn 4 and was sent into the Gravel Trap. He continued the race but had to come in to the pits and retire due to the extensive damage that the bodywork of the car had suffered.
Even though Verstappen still leads the driver’s World Championship by 38 points, he’s under immense pressure from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Ferrari seems to have the better package right now and they also have the momentum with two back to back race wins.
Next track on the calendar is Paul Ricard, a fast and flowing circuit with many fast corners. This type of circuits have always seemed to favour Red Bull. To add to that, Red Bull have announced that their first batch of upgrades would be ready by the time for the French Grand Prix. However they still haven’t confirmed if the upgrades would be finished in time according to the schedule. If they do manage to get the upgrades in time, it’s going to be quite a tough battle up front.
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