Red Bull Racing Team Principal, Christian Horner, was overwhelmed with his team’s outstanding 1-2 at the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix, after Mercedes failed to capitalise on their advantage.
Horner didn’t seem able to believe that the outcome of the race would have been possible, commenting that it was: “An unbelievable day today. To achieve a first and second in the Malaysian Grand Prix is beyond our wildest expectations.”
“The race had an interesting start with a bit of action at the first corner which Sebastian triggered, costing Max particularly quite a bit of time,” mentioned Horner, referring to the incident between Ferrari’s Sebastien Vettel and Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg. “Thereafter both drivers settled into a rhythm and after the first Virtual Safety Car we decided to take a little bit of a risk with an early stop for Max which put him out of sequence with the other cars.”
With some close wheel-to-wheel racing from winner Daniel Ricciardo and his teammate Max Verstappen, there was speculation that there would be team orders imposed, but Horner clarifies that there was no intention to do this:
“The drivers were racing each other firmly but fairly, the only instruction from the team was to keep it clean. We saw some great racing; at one point side by side at turns 5 and 6.”
The team capitalised on the reliability issues of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes to take another pit stop for both of the drivers:
“Unfortunately for Lewis his engine let go causing the next virtual safety car, and we took the opportunity to ensure that both drivers could get to the end of the race on a new set of soft tyres. Then it was a straight fight between the two of them to get to the chequered flag, and Daniel had just enough in hand to maintain a margin and complete a Red Bull Racing one-two finish, our first since Brazil 2013.”
Horner thanked all of the people that made Red Bull’s return to form possible, commenting that:
“It’s a culmination of a great amount of teamwork both trackside and from everyone else back in the factory. It’s fantastic for Red Bull and for all of our partners. Our thanks also to all of the hard work that’s been put in by the people at Viry in delivering a great package for our TAG Heuer branded engine.”
