HORNER HAILS VERSTAPPEN’S “A PERFECT PERFORMANCE”

A perfect performance. This was the kind of drive that shows Verstappen can be a proper F1 title threat. He aced the start, did a good enough restart, eased clear and managed his tyres – never once coming under attack from a Mercedes behind.

There’s really not a lot to say about Verstappen’s drive other than it was textbook. He showed it’s not just Mercedes that can make F1 boring and when it comes together he can win with relative ease as well!

This will fire him and Red Bull up massively for the winter. The team needs to not drop the ball in the off-season like it has done so frequently. Verstappen has given it every possible motivation to do a better job. 

Christian Horner is a happy team boss with Max Verstappen’s strong victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. A nice boost after a difficult season and a good way to start the winter.

Horner shows his appreciation for his pupil in front of the Sky Sports cameras. “That was the best most static race that we have enjoyed for a very long time. 2013 was the last time we have won here. Max was clinical today, whatever they had he had today. You always want to win the last race because it gives you momentum into the offseason,” Horner said. 

Verstappen managed to recover well after the disappointment last week. “We have been chipping away in the last few races and Max left Bahrain gutted because he had a really quick car there and then came here and put the car on pole and controlled it from there. Mercedes did a top class job this year and they aren’t standing still. We take a large portion of this car into next and this gives a good shot of confidence into next year,” he added. 

Horner is also pleased with Albon

Red Bull F1 team boss Christian Horner says Alexander Albon enjoyed his “strongest collective weekend of the season” as he finished fourth in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Albon settled into fourth behind the two Mercedes drivers after the early Safety Car period.

Albon managed to apply pressure on Hamilton in the closing laps, ultimately finishing 1.6s behind him.

Horner praised Albon for his performance throughout the whole weekend but gave no details on when a decision would be made by Red Bull to who partners Max Verstappen in 2021.

“Alex has done a very good job today,” Horner said. “It’s probably been his strongest collective weekend of the season. He’s driven a good race, he was putting Lewis under pressure at the end there and that now gives us a complete set of information now to go away and analyse it and work out what we’re going to do.”

Reflecting on the race, Albon admits he should have pushed too late when trying to catch Hamilton for third.

“A great result,” Albon said. “The car has been very good all weekend. It was a couple of laps maybe we could have got past. It was just tricky. I struggled a bit at the beginning of the hard tyre and I thought ‘these guys are going quick’ and when I knew how many laps I had to do on them I was probably a bit too safe and had a bit too much juice left at the end. It was a good weekend from me and obviously a good moment.”

With regards to his F1 future, he added: “I don’t know. I wouldn’t know. On my side, all it was was to have a good weekend and go home now, Christmas with the family and we will see!”

horner hails verstappen’s “strongest collective weekend” horner hails verstappen’s “strongest collective weekend”

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