Oracle Red Bull Racing Team Principal, Christian Horner is extremely disappointed with the way the team are leaving Brazil after the team’s pace and performance dipped considerably at Interlagos.
The São Paulo Grand Prix is amongst the list of favourite races on the Formula One calendar. Rich in historic motorsport moments and overflowing with Ayrton Senna fans, Sao Paulo has never failed to deliver. However, for Horner and the Red Bull team, this season, Brazil bears memories not worth thinking about. The RB18 fell way below the expectations the team had maintained the whole season, encountering poor pace and bad tyre degradation, the best the team could achieve was the sixth and seventh position, a disappointing result.
Horner commented on the issues the team battled with for the entire weekend: “We haven’t often left a Grand Prix weekend this season feeling disappointed. Coming away from Brazil with P6 and P7 is far from the standards we have set for ourselves this season. The main issue for us was our pace.“
With the final race of the season approaching, Horner is eager for the team to resolve the issues with pace and avoid giving away any more performance to the competitive teams, despite Red Bull having bagged both major prizes of the season.
“George drove very well all weekend and the various updates Mercedes have been bringing throughout the year has seen them get quicker and quicker. We need to understand why we gave away performance this weekend and will come out firing on all cylinders in Abu Dhabi.”
Away from the paddock, the team encountered some drama between the two drivers, regarding Max Verstappen denying his team-mate Sergio Pérez sixth position. Verstappen stated that he had ‘his reasons’ for not following team orders and denying the extra points to his team-mate, despite past efforts and support Verstappen has received from Pérez this season and in 2021.
Due to Pérez not achieving the position the team had hoped for, the Mexican driver is now equal to Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc in the Drivers’ Championship on two-hundred ninety points. Heading into the season finale, Horner stated that Red Bull will be doing everything they can to secure second place for Pérez.
“Regarding Max and Checo, we have discussed the matter internally and we go into Abu Dhabi as a Team to do the very best that we can to help Checo achieve second place in the Championship. Max is supportive of that. Ultimately, we work as a Team and race as a Team. It is that ethos that has seen us gain such great success this season and will continue to drive us forward.”
