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The thirteenth stage of the season did not add points to Red Bull Racing: Max Verstappen retired and Alex Albon finished only in 15th place. The results of the failed weekend were summarized by team leader Christian Horner.
Christian asks, Max Verstappen was unable to finish due to an explosion on the right rear tire. Did you drive over a shipwreck?
Christian Horner: Supossely Yes. Max was in contact with his engineer when a pretty loud bang was heard, and then the right rear tire just collapsed. Since this happened completely unexpectedly, we believe that some debris may have been the cause.
This is a very annoying incident, because Max managed to pass Valtteri Bottas and kept an excellent pace. Without this puncture, he would definitely have finished second.
Q: Maybe Red Bull Racing’s strategy would have been slightly different if their second driver drove fourth, so Mercedes had no difficulty responding to Max’s pit stop: Valtteri Bottas changed tires at Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton was planning stay on the track as long as possible.
Christian Horner: We understood that in that situation Mercedes could respond to any of our actions, and even if we try to carry out the so-called “cut”, they will call their second car to the pits as late as possible. It is impossible to defeat the two Mercedes drivers with one car at the same time, you have to choose one of them and try to overtake.
We were hoping to be ahead of Lewis and hoping that after his pit stop Valtteri Bottas on fresh tires would be fast enough. But his pace was insufficient, and in addition, Valtteri began to make many mistakes, allowing Lewis to create a gap, with which he would remain the leader after the pit stop. At some point, Hamilton got into traffic, the gap started to narrow, but then virtual safety car mode was announced – Lewis calmly made a pit stop and held the lead.
Question: Did you know that Valtteri Bottas has a damaged car?
Christian Horner: Of course. As the race progresses, we hear other teams speak and what television commentators say. (laughs)
We knew that Valtteri was driving a damaged car and that Lewis had a tempo advantage in such a situation. Therefore, it was especially important for Max to pressure Bottas as soon as possible, force him to make a mistake and carry out an attack.
At the penultimate corner, Valtteri slightly snagged on a gravel trap, Max nearly collided with the back of his car, waited for a straight line, and managed to regain position thanks to DRS. At that time, everything was going very well for us.
Question In the final laps, Alexander Albon was driving fifth, but he made a mistake and scored no points. What did you say to him?
Christian Horner: For Alex, the day was not easy. Throughout the race, he battled Charles Leclair and Daniel Riccardo, but at the time of the restart, battling those on softer tires, he lost control of the car at the second chicane. Zero points is an annoying result of the weekend both for Alex himself and for our entire team. In the next two weeks, we will work with him for better results in Turkey.
Question During the race, Max didn’t like something about the car. What have you done with it?
Christian Horner: Max did not like the eighth mode of operation of the power plant.
Question: I would like more details …
Christian Horner: We needed to solve a couple of minor problems, these power plants are very sensitive and racers sometimes feel like the engine is not running smooth enough in a particular mode. Max was not satisfied with the eighth mode, we will try to avoid it in the future.
Q: Are you looking forward to the Turkish Grand Prix? The stages in Italy were not very successful, especially for Max Verstappen: three retirements in three races.
Christian Horner: I don’t know what Max was guilty of against Italy, but this season in this country he is clearly out of luck. Turkey has a great “old school” track, we won there in 2011 with Sebastian Vettel, implementing a strategy of four pit stops. It’s great that this season we get a chance to get back on the big tracks that we performed on in the past.
