Red Bull welcomes rivals' turnaround
Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner believes the return to form of teams like McLaren and Ferrari is a boost rather than a threat to his outfit's championship ambitions
With Lewis Hamilton taking McLaren's first win of the season, and Kimi Raikkonen delivering Ferrari's best result of the year, the main title contenders could only play a supporting role at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
However, Horner thinks that other teams closing in on Red Bull and Brawn could well be a benefit in taking points off his title rivals.
"This was never going to be our best circuit here, and there are more players coming into the game now," he explained. "There is the step that McLaren has made, I think Renault has also made a step and Williams, in fairness, their car also looks very promising.
"So for us the best thing is to have the most cars between us and Brawn as we possibly can."
Red Bull's RB5 is now viewed as the fastest car in the field, and Horner thinks it should start to excel once the calendar returns to more traditional high-speed venues.
"I think once we get back to more classic tracks we'll start to see hopefully a similar performance from our car [to Silverstone and the Nurburgring] and it will be interesting to see where the Brawns are," he said.
"I think it will yo-yo, be circuit dependant and there will be some tracks that will really play to the strength of our car."
Although the imminent factory shutdowns in F1 means Red Bull Racing will have a temporary break in the head of steam it has built up, Horner thinks the holiday will allow the team to recharge itself ready for the next push.
"I think it's a well deserved respite for the guys. We can't keep pushing them at the rate they are going. They deserve two weeks off and will come back fully charged and pumped up for Valencia onwards.
"The momentum can change so quickly, and the rate of development this year is relentless. Whoever gets the most performance to their car the quickest is going to win this championship.
"We are fully focused on keeping the development flat out until the end of the year."
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments