Horner: 'Pressuring Mercedes in Portugal bodes well for rest of the year'

Published on 26 April 2021 by Julien Lemmen

Red Bull Racing had an excellent start of the season, with victory for Max Verstappen in Imola. Christian Horner, team principal of Red Bull Racing, reflects on the Emilia-Romanga Grand Prix and looks ahead to the upcoming double-header in Portugal and Spain in his own column on the official website of the team 

“Pre-season testing can only tell you so much, so it was encouraging to see the pace of the RB16B in Bahrain. But what was more special was going to Imola and backing that performance up to prove Bahrain was not a one-off. At the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, both Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen were competitive. We had a messy Friday, but the team recovered well and on Saturday, Checo in particular had a great qualifying and achieved his first F1 front-row start. To have both cars within a tenth of pole, despite both drivers having made mistakes on their fastest laps, shows either car could have been in P1. That is exactly what we are looking for as a team.”

“Max had a good start in tricky damp conditions and went wheel-to-wheel with Lewis through the first corner. Placing his car perfectly on the racing line, he was able to edge ahead and from there the race was his to lose. the team timed Max’s tyre cross over perfectly, going from intermediate to slick tyres, which is always difficult when you are leading the race. Victory is always a true Team effort - great pit stops, strategy and reliability trackside plus a mammoth effort from the factory behind the scenes.”

“Mercedes once again showed great race pace, so you can see there is not a lot in it at the moment. It is about getting it right on the day, not making mistakes and developing the car efficiently within the budget cap rules and getting the most out of each weekend. We will try and put as much pressure on Lewis in his title defence as we possibly can and if the next 21 races are as exciting as the first two, then it is going to be an epic season.”

“This season, F1 has introduced a budget cap and it is up to the teams to work within those restrictions, which is not an easy task for the bigger teams. We went through a restructure over the winter, which was very tough and saw us having to downsize across certain departments. We made the difficult decision to take the pain early on so everyone knew where they stood.”

“The budget cap is a big factor when it comes to performance, so a big crash like the one Valtteri had in Imola could hamper your ability to develop the current car as Toto said. But with the circuits we have coming up, including street circuits with close barriers, accidents will happen to everyone and we will all have to deal with the same challenge at some point. The other aspect is that with a new set of regulations for 2022, you have to weigh up how you split your resources over the two cars. There is a tricky balancing act between committing to the new car and working on the current car which we are all having to navigate.”

“It’s also been a big week for Red Bull Powertrains. We broke ground on building work for the new facility and confirmed the appointment of Ben Hodgkinson as Technical Director. Ben, who comes from Mercedes, will head up all technical aspects with a key focus on developing Red Bull's inaugural power unit, to comply with the new Formula One regulations currently planned for 2025.”

“We are now going into a double-header as the races come thick and fast. We go to Portugal and then Spain and they are both great tracks but circuits we would expect to play to Mercedes' strengths, based on last year’s data. Portimao was a good addition to the calendar last year, the surface will hopefully have weathered-in a little bit as the newly resurfaced circuit was very slippery. Barcelona is the benchmark we all have so much data from so it will be interesting to see who comes out on top.”

“I am excited for both races and you can be sure that we are full of energy and motivation. If we can put Mercedes under a little bit of pressure at these tracks then that bodes well for the rest of the year. I always said it would take four races to get a clear picture of form, so now is the acid test.”