Horner: Ferrari has the advantage in Monaco

Christian Horner, head of Red Bull Racing, commented on the course of the race in Miami, where victory went to Max Verstappen, but acknowledged that the balance of power could change in the following stages†

Q: The end of the race turned out to be very bright – did Max have to squeeze everything out of the car?
Christian Horner: Yes, we used all the reserves and we were also lucky that Ferrari didn’t change tires when the safety car came on track. After all, they could switch to soft rubber, but they didn’t, and that neutralized the situation somewhat.

But when Charles Leclerc was in the DRS zone behind our car, Max couldn’t tear himself away from him. Whoever is in the lead is always under a lot of pressure because you can easily lock the wheels or make some other mistake. But he did everything right, behaved flawlessly and it took him five or six laps to gradually get past the second interval and stop allowing Charles to use DRS.

And at the start of the race, Max Leclerc just followed and took care of the tires – we initially decided to stick to such tactics. It was important to put pressure on Charles, after which Max could get closer to him and make quite rational use of our noticeable advantage in maximum speed. In general, tactics played a part in this race.

Q: What do you think, because of what Ferrari was so quick after the restart? It’s not the first time we’ve seen something like this this season. At the same time, at the start of the race, when Verstappen was ahead of Leclerc, he couldn’t keep him behind and he quickly fell behind. And when the safety car left the track, Charles drove right behind your car for a long time…
Christian Horner: I think at this point all the temperatures dropped a bit, the tires got back to the optimal working range and on top of that DRS worked very effectively on this track. Leclerc was able to get close to our car in the first sector of the track and we couldn’t get away from him for the rest of the lap.

Charles came closer and closer, but eventually made a small mistake and Max took advantage of that, exited the DRS zone, after which nothing jeopardized his lead.

Q: In general, this year it looks like this: if Verstappen manages to make it to the finish, he will win the race. It is a fact. Are you sure you were able to resolve the reliability issue? And how big is your speed advantage over Ferrari?
Christian Horner: We just have different concepts. Look at our car’s fenders: In Miami, we modified the car’s aerodynamic kit for a low level of downforce. At the same time, we assumed that this will reduce tire stress and provide a speed advantage on the straights. It seems our approach has worked here.

As for the reliability of technology, problems are of course not excluded. For example, Sergio Perez’s car had a problem with one of the sensors during the race, and although we managed to get around it, the engine lost about 30 hp. Because of this, Sergio lost about half a second in each round. If he hadn’t, he might have finished second.

But since the sensor has failed, we will have to work out the reasons for this together with the Honda mechanics.

Q: With each win for Red Bull, Ferrari’s advantage in both leagues is diminishing. If we talk about the individual classification, Max won eight more points from Leclerc. But to overtake Charles, he has to win the next three races, and to achieve this you definitely need a partner to help Verstappen…
Christian Horner: Yes, for that we need Sergio and I have no doubt that he can handle this task. I think everyone in Imola saw how quickly the situation in the championship can change and we have some interesting races ahead of us.

In general, our machines are working well and we are preparing another series of new products, which we plan to introduce in the summer – I hope this will help too. In particular, we need to reduce the weight of the car a bit and make it more capable of handling slower corners. We should always strive for improvements, but we are on the right track.

In this case, the situation may differ per track. So we think that in Monaco a noticeable advantage will be on Ferrari’s side. We have to try to make the RB18 better handle the different types of circuits we have to act on.