Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admits “both championships will absolutely be under pressure” if it can’t turn around its form after the Italian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen finished sixth and Sergio Perez eighth at Monza, having qualified seventh and eighth respectively behind McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes. Although Verstappen still holds a 62-point lead in the drivers’ championship, Lando Norris has taken 16 points out of his advantage in the past two rounds and with eight races to go Horner is concerned by the performance level of the car.
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“With the pace we had… both championships absolutely will be under pressure, for sure,” Horner said. “We have to turn the situation around very quickly. I think this circuit has exposed the deficiencies we have in the car versus last year, and I think that we have a very clear issue which has been highlighted this weekend, we know we have to get on top of and address, otherwise we put ourselves under massive pressure.
“Based on [Sunday’s] performance you’d say both are under absolute pressure, we were the fourth-fastest car, that’s the reality. We’ve got to turn it around, if we want to make sure we win both titles.”
Red Bull is now just eight points clear of McLaren and 39 ahead of Ferrari in the constructors’ standings, and Horner says Monza highlighted the root cause of the struggles that the team has been facing.
“I think on other [circuits] perhaps running more downforce hides some of the balance issues we have, and you can see that we have a disconnection in balance that just isn’t working. And as soon as you end up in that situation, you’re harder on tires, you end up compensating, you move the balance around, you secure one problem and create another, so you just end up in a vicious circle.”
However, Horner took some solace from the fact that Norris didn’t secure maximum points in Monza, being overtaken by Oscar Piastri on the opening lap and finishing third behind his teammate as Charles Leclerc beat both to victory.
“I don’t know what the papaya rules are, but they nearly took themselves out of the race at the second chicane. From a drivers championship point of view it helped us out.
“It’s always a difficult position as a team but it’s inevitable at some point you’ve got to put your best foot forward and it’s impossible to do that when you’re got a situation like that.”