Christian Horner opened up about the inconsistency in tyre performance that Red Bull experienced during the F1 Chinese GP.
Max Verstappen is putting on a one-man show at Red Bull to keep himself in the early championship fight. At the F1 Chinese GP, he delivered a masterclass in damage limitation, extracting the maximum from his Red Bull car.
The Dutch driver recovered from a poor start to finish strongly in the closing stages of the race, catching up with the Ferrari drivers, and making an exciting pass on Charles Leclerc to ultimately finish fourth, 5.5 seconds behind third-placed George Russell.
Puzzling tyre performance
One of the biggest talking points from Red Bull’s race was the stark contrast in performance between tyre stints. Horner acknowledged the difference, noting that Verstappen struggled more on the medium compound in the first stint but showed strong pace on the hard tyre later in the race.
“There was obviously a significant difference—we were just going through it in the debrief,” Horner explained in his print media session. “On the medium, Max came into the pits 18 seconds behind the race leader; by the end of the race, he was 16 seconds behind. And in the meantime, he caught both Ferraris and passed Charles Leclerc. So I think the car was in a better window on the harder tyre.”
Changes made after Saturday’s Sprint “improved the deg for the race”
Horner added that Red Bull adopted a conservative approach for Sunday, expecting the degradation to be serious enough to warrant a two-stop strategy.
“We went into the race very concerned about the front-left tyre. I think, as everybody did, expecting it to be a two-stop. We had a lot of discussion after the experience of the Sprint race, where we degged quite heavily,” Horner admitted.
“We were very competitive early on but then degged quite a bit, so we decided to conserve the tyre for the back end of that first stint. With 20/20 hindsight, we saw the pace on the in-lap, we probably could have pushed that first stint quite a bit harder. I think that would have seen him racing, probably George [Russell] at the end of the race.”
Despite the early caution, Verstappen’s pace in the final third of the race was encouraging.
“Particularly in the last third of the race, the car really… Max got a feeling, the grip came alive, the car came alive, and he was pretty much the quickest car on the circuit, that last third of the race,” Horner said.
Did Red Bull play it too safe?
Horner continued: “It’s totally inverse to [the Sprint].
“Max was fighting to take the lead in the first half of the Sprint race, and then we degged badly, which affected how we approached the race. We made some changes to the car, and we definitely improved the deg for the race.”
However, Red Bull may have been too cautious in their approach, assuming that the high degradation seen on Saturday would carry over into the main race.
“I think we spooked ourselves slightly with the level of deg that we had in the first stint. We had a plan going into the race to manage that,” Horner admitted.
“And then it transpired that it was a completely different scenario. I can’t believe any team in the pit lane thought it was going to be a one-stop going into that race today based on what we saw yesterday. And in the end, it was a very comfortable one-stop.”
Focus shifts to Japan
Horner admitted that Red Bull still needs to analyse the data and understand what’s driving these fluctuations as the focus shifts to the upcoming F1 Japanese GP.
“There’s a lot for us to take away and understand,” he said.
“We know we need to put performance on the car—it’s the second race in succession where the latter part of the race has been better for us.”
He believes there is more performance to be extracted from the RB21, as evidenced by Verstappen’s strong pace, but the key is understanding how to unlock it.
“We’ve got a lot of information, a lot of data, and feedback from the driver. In the second stint, you could see—just have a look at the lap times, last third of the race. And particularly, you even look at his last lap—it was very competitive,” he commented.
“Why was it competitive? What drove that competitiveness? What does he need in terms of switching on the grip? It’s not a balance issue so much that he’s struggling with, it’s just about extracting more from the tyre.
“We leave the first two races eight points behind in the Drivers’ Championship, second in the Drivers’. We know we’ve got performance to find, the whole team’s working very hard, very focused on that.
“I think we’ve taken a lot of information out of this weekend and now with the two week gap to Japan, we need to try and make sure we come back fighting hard there.”
Is Red Bull really the fourth-quickest F1 team?
Red Bull’s form since the start of the season has led to speculation about where they stand in the current pecking order. Horner pushed back, saying that performance was dependent on the specific conditions of each race weekend.
“I think it’s all subjective to the day that you’re on,” he argued.
“[Verstappen] caught and passed two Ferraris, passed one of them. Today, McLarens are the benchmark—they’ve won the first two races. That’s who we have to beat, that’s what we’ve got to beat.
“I think we’ve got a reasonable basis. We were 0.17 off pole and we were as quick in the second stint as the McLarens. We know there’s areas that we need to improve the car, and there’s a roadmap of development that is planned.
“Now, obviously, we’re trying to make sure that that develops what we need in terms of lap time to really find a little bit more pace and put a lot of pressure on the McLarens ahead—but they’re not that far ahead.”
Horner highlighted the effort being put in by Verstappen and the entire Red Bull team to close the gap to McLaren.
“We’re working very hard collectively as a team,” he stated.
“And Max is working harder than I’ve ever seen in terms of putting the effort in, giving real direction on what he needs from the car to find that missing pace.”
