Christian Horner admits to strategic errors at Red Bull, as the impact of dirty air proves unexpectedly severe.
On the radio during the last Grand Prix in Hungary, Max Verstappen was extremely harsh and insulting towards his own team’s strategy.
Max Verstappen was wrong in his approach but right in principle: Red Bull should have indeed prioritized track position over relying on the performance gap provided by fresh tires. This was later conceded by Horner himself.
Indeed, Max Verstappen consistently emerged behind Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on track, who had undercut him. With his fresh tires, he managed to pass the Ferrari but then encountered the obstacle of Lewis Hamilton, making two errors (running wide and a ‘divebomb’ that resulted in a collision).
Christian Horner admitted after the race that it was harder than expected to follow another car on track. And therefore, to overtake…
Things had started off poorly as Max Verstappen quickly found himself in the dirty air of the two McLaren F1s in the initial laps, after having to let Lando Norris pass.
“It was very difficult to follow another car in dirtier air and probably more than we had anticipated.”
“At the start, Max gained a position and we thought it was a racing incident, they were three in the turn.”
“Under the mantra ‘Let them race’, we thought it seemed correct, but as soon as the stewards are involved, at that point, you feel that you are probably going to get a penalty.”
“That’s why we conceded the place to Lando, which really puts you in the dirty air after that.”
At the first stops, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc thus undercut Max Verstappen. The Dutchman became agitated when overtaking Lewis Hamilton, as he had to run wide at turn 2 on lap 35, losing precious time.
“Lewis, with his two sets of hard tires, had to pit very early. We were considering pitting as early, but at that moment, you are fighting for the third places,” explains Christian Horner.
“With his two hard tires, he had the opportunity to change his race plan very early. So we decided to go longer with an advantage in terms of laps, thanks to the ‘overlap’.”
“In fact, on the hard tires, you can see that Max was competitive and strong, compared to the McLarens. So, he quickly caught up to Lewis, but then, unfortunately, in the dirty air, he got stuck as Lewis really began to drop in performance.”
“If he had been able to pass Lewis then, we could have gone after one of the McLarens towards the end of the race.”
“Because of the dirty air, Max and Charles switched tires early. But after his stop, Max’s pace was very solid. He quickly caught up to Leclerc and passed him…”
Then there was the collision with Lewis Hamilton. Christian Horner considers it a racing incident…
“The best way to describe it: racing incident.”
“We then sustained some damage and then we were in the dirty air.”
“So, yes, a frustrating race. I think when you look at the race now, there are ifs, buts, and maybes.”
“But I think what we underestimated is how tricky it was in the dirty air, and it’s that part of the race that caused us the most damage.”
“Hard to say why, we’re going to draw an analysis from this race. We could see that the second sector was very affected, no matter which car was following, even when Lando was dropped by Oscar [Piastri], we could see that his second sector had dropped compared to him.”
So, it’s less easy to follow an F1… back to 2021?
The new aerodynamic regulations of 2022 were supposed to make it easier for cars to follow each other.
But time has passed and with the gains in downforce, the benefits of the regulations have almost been canceled out according to the boss from Milton Keynes.
“Listening to the drivers, especially during the debrief that just took place, it feels like we are moving back to 2021 – although not as bad.”
“But as the cars are increasingly developed, they become harder to follow, and dirty air thus becomes an increasingly significant issue.”
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Dirty Air Challenges Exceed Red Bull’s Plans Dirty Air Challenges Exceed Red Bull’s Plans
