Christian Horner Accuses Mercedes
Christian Horner Accuses Mercedes
The French Grand Prix was a tough weekend for Red Bull’s team boss Christian Horner to judge. On one hand, the team and Max Verstappen saw themselves increase their leads over both championships. And on the other hand, Sergio Perez had a weird weekend to say the least, with a mediocre performance during the qualifying sessions.
And a podium finish that slipped through his hands due to a Virtual Safety Car error that worked perfectly in Mercedes driver, George Russell’s favor. So how does Christian see the recent French Grand Prix as a whole? And does he think Sergio was sabotaged by the FIA? Well, let’s talk about it then. But before we do so, consider subscribing to the channel as we upload 4 videos at the minimum every week, just to keep you updated on the latest happenings in the F1 space. Now that’s out of the way, let’s get into it.
First, let’s talk about the positives for Red Bull in France. As we all know by now, Verstappen and Red Bull were able to extend their lead over Ferrari after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc made a costly mistake that forced him to retire from the race. While his teammate Carlos Sainz wasn’t able to make a lasting impact on the podium positions as he had to fight through the field due to an engine penalty that saw him start the race at the back of the grid.
With Verstappen’s win in France, the Dutch driver would extend his lead over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to 63 points in the drivers’ championship. It is undeniable that Verstappen has been the dominating force this season and a good chunk of that is thanks to Red Bull’s cutting-edge engineering who too undeniably have done the best job in shifting to the new regulations.
This early season dominance by Red Bull has team boss Christian Horner described the experience as something that was beyond his wildest dreams saying:
“If you had told me before Christmas last year that with the biggest rule change in 40 years and with the energy we put into last year’s championship we would now have eight wins, two sprint wins and leads of 63 and 82 points in the championship, it would have exceeded my wildest dreams. It’s really indicative of the determination, dedication and hard work behind the scenes at the factory. We see a very competitive Ferrari this year and we see Mercedes building momentum. But when you consider we were the last team to put the focus entirely on this year, we’ve done a phenomenal job.”
Coming into France, Red Bull would make major updates to the RB18, specifically addressing the tire degradation the team had faced in Austria. Before arriving in France, the team had their outer fences extremely close which made the car’s aero balance more forward. In France the team had their outer fences more separated which brought the balance more towards the rear and with a smaller rear wing, the team was able to unlock a new level of straight-line speed whilst also minimizing their front tire degradation which is important in a hot track like Paul Ricard.
These new updates helped Verstappen achieve his 7th win of the season, and while Verstappen would lead all throughout the race after Leclerc’s incident, Horner would share in detail the team’s strategy to ensure that he would have stayed ahead of Leclerc and fend off a late push from Mercedes as well:
“The race went on we moved more and more towards one stop, and on lap 16 we pulled the trigger because we saw a bit of free track we could get Max in. Half a lap later he had the position on the track and from then on it was a case of running the tyres in cleanly. Two laps later, Charles crashed and everyone got a free pit-stop under the safety car. We were lucky to have just enough lead on both Mercedes cars.”
Speaking of Mercedes, both their drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell would finish on the podium which would also be the first time 2 shared one since George’s arrival to the team. And while Christian wouldn’t have much to say about Lewis, the Red Bull team boss would comment on George’s and say that the British driver timed his attack too perfectly. This was in reference to what happened between George Russell and their driver Sergio Perez during the Virtual Safety Car restart.
But even before that, the 2 were already embroiled in a heated battle that saw Perez cutting the chicane in lap 42. And fast-forward a couple of laps later during the Virtual Safety Car restart, Perez seemed to mistime his acceleration which left him vulnerable during the restart to George who timed his restart perfectly which made him pass Perez without much trouble and in the end earning himself a podium finish. Perez would give some insight into what happened after the race saying:
“I just got screwed with the Virtual Safety Car because it said it was going to end up out of Turn 9, so I went for it, but then it didn’t end, and then it ended into Turn 13, so I don’t know what they were doing with it. Then I got the message saying it was going to end through Turn 12. And I was just too close to it. It seems like George had different information and he was able to prepare better for it [the restart]. I mean it’s a shame the virtual safety car interfered with the result, to be honest. It shouldn’t be the case, but today it was the case. It [the message of VSC ending] was totally wrong, there was something going on because it said it was going to end out of Turn 9 and it only ended out of Turn 12.”
Team boss Christian Horner would also share Perez’s frustrations and would share that the team has brought the issue to the FIA’s attention saying:
“Checo struggled a little more this weekend with [tyre] degradation than we’ve seen previously. What was frustrating for him is there was an issue in race control with the safety car, the VSC, because they couldn’t turn it off, so they had to do a reset. Just talking with him, he said he wasn’t getting the delta in his car, so he was bang on his delta. George either pre-empted it but was within the delta, or maybe the information to the two cars was different. We have to go and explore that. Yeah, it was frustrating, because I think he would have had the pace to hold him off for a double podium.”
Both Perez and Horner would claim that the VSC had interfered after it seemed to them that George was able to prepare better for the restart. On the other hand, George would also give insight to his mindset as the race was about to restart saying:
“I had to sort of preempt it and it can go both ways. I knew I had one opportunity when the VSC was ending and if you can time it right and you carry the momentum, you can just carry that through after the VSC. I think he may have been a little bit too quick and had to brake. So he’s braking, I’m accelerating and that gave me an opportunity. I just saw the opportunity and went for it. Great to slip past him. I was a bit disappointed not to keep the position when I did my first overtake on him.” But it was really tricky in those last few laps. It’s clear what our strengths and weaknesses are as a team, we clearly struggle in qualifying when the tyres are new and cold. We struggled with tyre warm up after the pit stops but we’re really strong when the tyres are hot, but after that VSC, the tyres cool down, it was a restart again, and the Red Bull had the advantage on me… so I had to do my best to keep him behind.”
This string of bad luck for Perez has costed him the chance to be in contention for the drivers’ championship as he is no 70 points behind his teammate Max Verstappen, and 7 points behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. But nonetheless, the F1 world waits for no man and as the team heads to Hungary for the last race before the summer break, team boss Christian Horner would share his expectations for the team saying:
“It’s a different type of track. It’s a track that is going to be strong for Ferrari. We’ve seen that they have been strong the last few races. We need to keep pushing and try to get the best out of every performance. Today was a big day for us.”
And there you have it guys, so what do you think? Will Red Bull maintain this form for the rest of the season? Is Verstappen a lock for the drivers’ title? And was Perez cheated out of a P3 finish? Let us know in the comment section below, and as always don’t forget to like and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t!
