Red Bull F1 boss comfortable with letting teammates race on track
Red Bull boss Christian Horner called the team’s one-two finish in the Malaysian GP a “fantastic day” after Lewis Hamilton’s late retirement left the dark blue cars in front.
Red Bull had pushed Mercedes hard during the race and, in the early stages, clever strategy had forced Hamilton to respond as Verstappen looked like a potential winner.
“It was a fantastic day,” said Horner. “A great day for the team, 43 points at a race like this which is not what we expected this morning. Obviously we capitalized on the misfortune of Lewis, hopefully in some way the pressure we were putting contributed to that. Unlucky for him, but both our drivers did a fantastic job to be in a position to capitalize. Great racing between the two of them, great teamwork today, so we go on to Japan a very happy team.”
The race became stressful for the Red Bull when the strategies of the two drivers converged and they were racing for position. At one point they were running wheel-to-wheel.
“What had basically happened at this point, it was clear that Max was going to go to the end of the race on the hard tire with Daniel. We had stopped on lap 21 and we were having some discussion with him about whether he felt he could get to the end. His initial response around 6-7 laps in was yes, he thought he could.
“At that point they are fighting each other for track position. That was why there was no interference and the instruction was you are racing each other, just respect each other, which is what we talked about this morning, and give each other space. Some great wheel-to-wheel racing between the two of them, but at all times they respected all the hundreds of employees they represent.
“I think that what we have seen in the two drivers is that there is a real respect between the two of them. They are both good racers, both hard racers and I felt comfortable letting the two guys go head-to-head today.”
Horner insisted that there were no team orders even in the final laps.
“No. I made the decision after that, I instructed both race engineers that they were free to race but make sure we prioritize 43 points, ask the drivers to respect that. They did and I think from our perspective it was fine to allow them to do that. They were both in the same engine modes, both in the same power state - so there was no real advantage one way or another.
“Daniel had a slight advantage that he had a brand new set of tires rather than an installed set from qualifying yesterday, but the main aspect was having track position compared to being the track in dirty air, it was always going to be a slight advantage. Max obviously started to run out of tires slightly before Daniel towards the end of the race.”
Regarding the next race, he said: “We are looking forward to Suzuka, hopefully it should be a circuit that plays a bit more to our strengths than here. We have seen our car very competitive all weekend in sector two, so we are quite looking forward to seconds one and potentially two in Suzuka - it is a great track, a great drivers’ circuit, hopefully we can have another strong weekend.”
