Red Bull team principal Christian Horner reflects on last weekend’s Qatar GP. He weighs in on the safety car issues as well as Norris’ controversial penalty.
Following Max Verstappen’s strong drive to victory at last weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix, a key talking point was the faulty safety car lights.
Following the announcement that the safety car would be ending, the lights on the car did not turn off as is protocol to inform the drivers. The FIA later identified a technical fault as the cause of the faulty lights.
Speaking after the Qatar GP, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner explained that the faulty lights had impacted Verstappen’s preparation to resume racing.
Horner explained that, by following the rules as prescribed, Verstappen did not leave a sufficient gap to the safety car before it entered the pits.
“I think it’s part of the job of being a driver, isn’t it?” Horner replied when asked if Verstappen spends a lot of time reading through the rules. “I think, again, the rule that nearly had us over today was, the message came, safety car in this lap, but the light stayed on the safety car. And so you’re then supposed to keep a distance to the back of the car.
“So he couldn’t slow the pack up because he was unsure what the safety car was going to do. So he was following the instructions from the safety car, basically. Then it came into the pits, which obviously then compromised him. But he was still fortunate to stay ahead of Lando [Norris] down at Turn 1.”
Another topic of heavy discussion following the Grand Prix was Lando Norris’ stop-and-go penalty. His failure to slow under double waved yellows cost the McLaren man a podium. Following the infringement, Verstappen told his race engineer Lambiase over the radio that Norris had not slowed.
Horner explained that Verstappen had reacted to the flags on his own accord. He said he had not been notified by his engineer when this was suggested by the media.
“No, he saw the yellow flags and reacted as per the rule book,” Horner explained. “Obviously he saw the amount of time that Lando [Norris] took out of him, behind of him and was questioning “did he lift, did he lift?” When we saw the GPS you could see he was DRS open and Harry Flatters.”
Horner also commented on the team’s impressive bounce back from a poor performance in Saturday’s Sprint. With the team coming away with just a single point, Sunday’s victory was an impressive turnaround. He then explained that setup changes alone allowed Verstappen to extract extra performance from the RB20. This in turn allowed him to top qualifying and eventually claim victory on sunday.
“It was more mechanical and setup changes that were made to Max’s car.” Horner said. “And look, all credit to the team here at Trackside and to all the guys in vehicle performance and engineering back in Milton Keynes that turned it around.
“It’s one of the biggest turnarounds I’ve seen. As I say, we’re fighting with Haas and Nico Hulkenberg on Saturday afternoon and by Saturday evening we were on pole position.”
Horner also discussed the tyre situation when asked if punctures shad been cause for concern at Red Bull. Following punctures for both Hamilton and Sainz, this may have plated a role. According to Horner, Verstappen’s tyre management allowed the team to make the tricky decision of when to pit.
“They wouldn’t have passed your MOT, put it that way.” He said when asked the condition of the tyres following the pit stop. “I think the thing that Max had done a super job with was, you probably heard his engineer saying, that all the time that Lando was taking out of him was in the high speed 12, 13, 14 corners.
“Max was managing his tyres extremely well there, which gave him the longevity. So of the first four cars, he was definitely in the best place with his tyres.
Then it became a bit of a game of roulette where the tyre, ironically, is going faster and faster as you’re getting down to the canvas. And then it’s, “well, you don’t want to pit now because if it’s a safety car, then the others get a ten second advantage.” So then everybody is going into this, who dares go the furthest? And then suddenly Hamilton drove past with a load of sparks coming out of the back of his car and then Sainz drove past with a puncture.
“On the lap that we chose to pit, which was the same lap as [Norris], the safety car essentially neutralised it.”
