Christian Horner concedes that Red Bull has to find more raw speed with the RB20 after a lacklustre Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.
Red Bull and Max Verstappen lead both championships but haven’t won a Grand Prix in the last three races.
Budapest was also their second event without a podium after a missed opportunity in Austria, as Verstappen slumped to a mediocre fifth place. The three-time world champion clattered into Lewis Hamilton on a frustrating day for the Red Bull driver.
Sergio Perez also floundered after crashing in qualifying, recovering to seventh place after getting eliminated in Q1. The Mexican is underperforming and hasn’t scored a podium since the Chinese Grand Prix.
“I think everybody sees that we need to find more performance. Everybody’s working hard to do that. We’ll have whatever discussions [are needed] behind closed doors.”
Verstappen battled with his upgraded Red Bull RB20 and his emotions while venting his frustration over the radio to his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.
The exchanges escalated more than on other occasions, as Red Bull was under more pressure from McLaren and Mercedes, as well as Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari yesterday.
Horner reiterated that it is normal for the pair to communicate in a direct fashion, a style that has been so successful in helping them to three consecutive world titles.
“Max was frustrated, which you can understand. He has a very direct line of communication with his engineer. That’s something that they’ll discuss between the two of them.”
Verstappen launched over the top of Hamilton’s car at Turn 1 in the closing stages of the Grand Prix as they battled for P3, a crash that was judged to be a racing incident.
Lambiase was reluctant to get into a battle over the incident with Verstappen, allegedly calling him childish directly over the radio.
Horner said the engineer wasn’t calling Verstappen “childish” and was instead talking about other teams searching for penalties to be given.
“No, I think that GP, I think at that point actually wasn’t referring to Max. I think he was referring to others on the radio complaining about penalties.
“So I don’t think GP’s reference at that point was in reference to Max.
“So others go in for penalties because the stewards are listening to the radio as well.
“They’ve been together for eight years. There’s things that we could have done better in the race today, but it’s something that we’ll talk about as a team.”
Regarding the swearing from Verstappen during those messages and whether a talk was required, Horner said: “I think that’s something not for in the media”.
Verstappen has become well-known for his love of sim racing. The night before the Hungarian Grand Prix, he competed in a virtual race at Spa as he did stints, including one into the middle of the night.
Some questioned his priorities after a difficult day at the office for the reigning World Champion, but Horner said he has full confidence in his star driver.
“He (Max) knows exactly what’s required in a Grand Prix, and we trust his judgement on that.
“I think people draw conclusions. Max, he knows what’s required. He knows what it takes to drive a Grand Prix car, to win Grands Prix and be a World Champion.”
