Red Bull Formula 1 boss Christian Horner has hailed the role that reserve driver Sebastien Buemi had in the turnaround that saw it win the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Red Bull has continued to dominate across the nascent stages of this campaign, but the squad appeared to be on the back foot during the practice sessions at Imola.
However, Max Verstappen recovered to take a narrow pole position over the McLaren drivers and then survived a late charge from Lando Norris in the race to triumph.
The Dutchman revealed that several set-up alterations had been pivotal to his comeback, with Horner highlighting how important Buemi’s work at Red Bull’s base was.
Buemi, who competed with Red Bull’s sister team from 2010 to 2011, returned to the Austrian outfit in a reserve position in 2019 to assist with simulation endeavours.
Asked to pinpoint the reason behind Red Bull overcoming its earlier weekend struggles to then be in a position to win the race, Horner quipped: “Sebastien Buemi!
“We did a lot of work on set-up over Friday night and into Saturday and managed to move the balance and get the car into a much better window.
“And as I say, for 60% of the race, we were comfortably anywhere between six and eight seconds clearer than the rest.
“Because it was just the second half of that stint on the Hard tyre that we started to give away performance [to Norris and McLaren].”
Horner believes the rebound that Red Bull completed during the Imola weekend demonstrated how crucial the group outside track activities are to a team’s prospects.
“It was a big dive,” he expanded when asked how extensive the team’s checks were post-practice amid Verstappen’s claim that the RB20’s balance couldn’t get worse.
“And that’s where you must never underestimate the support that comes from the broader team in the factory, the simulated drivers, and credit where credit’s due.
“The essence of [a] team is being able to respond when things aren’t going well. And I think we managed to turn it around.
“If you’d have expected this result on Friday, all your analysis would have said no way. But we managed to turn it around and win the race.”
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