Red Bull boss Christian Horner has denied Max Verstappen’s view that several individuals in the Formula 1 team aren’t on the same wavelength with its slump in form.
The Austrian outfit began the ongoing campaign as the pre-eminent side once again, but Verstappen hasn’t prevailed in the last three races as the pack has closed in.
Verstappen cut a disgruntled mood across the weekend at the Hungaroring as Red Bull’s recent upgrade package wasn’t enough to dispel McLaren’s continued threat.
UK betting sites expert, Stan Miller, who attended the event on behalf of BookiesBonuses.com, reported – “The weather conditions kept changing drastically from extreme heat on track during Friday’s first two practice sessions, to rain on Saturday for the qualifier and moderate dry heat during raceday on Sunday. All those changes didn’t bode well for Verstappen. When I checked the odds on a few popular bookies, Max consistently appeared as third favourite, in line with his starting grid position. However, end of lap 21 quickly saw a dramatic shift in odds, as the Dutchman went for a change of tyres (medium to hard) and from then on couldn’t quite climb back in rankings, in part due to Hamilton’s great defence.”
Having qualified third behind the two McLaren drivers, the Dutchman demanded that “some people wake up a bit” as he raised worries about Red Bull’s title prospects.
Verstappen’s temper was tested to the extreme in the race as strategic errors and a late clash with Lewis Hamilton saw his points lead slashed as he ended up in fifth.
However, Horner is adamant the entire Red Bull setup is more than aware that the side must bolster its performance with McLaren having closed the gap to 51 points.
“Everybody sees that we need to find more performance, and everybody’s working hard to do that,” he said. “We’ll have whatever discussions behind closed doors.”
Verstappen complained that he’s having to drive “over the limit” on a single lap to even be in contention as he wound up less than one-tenth from seizing pole position.
But the three-time F1 champion cautioned that he wasn’t optimistic about Red Bull’s race pace and he was proven correct as he rued combating excessive understeer.
Asked whether Verstappen was racing the limit with the RB20, Horner replied: “As a team, we work hard to continue to improve the car. It’s something that isn’t static.
“It’s constantly working, a team of people that are back in the UK that are working incredibly hard, and it was a big effort to bring this upgrade for this race.
“There are some positives from that and obviously we’ll look to apply that moving forward. The car is a different specification again next weekend.”
Horner accepted that Red Bull has to improve how it executes races in the remaining events, despite reiterating that convergence is inevitable with static regulations.
“With stable regulations the marginal gains you’re into a curve where the gains are going to become harder and harder to find, that’s normal, the normal cycle,” he said.
“I’ve been in this business for 20 years, that’s what happens.
“It doesn’t mean you accept it, you’ve just got to work harder to find the incremental gains and execute good races and be on the top of your game.
“We know we need to improve in the second half of the year.”
