Christian Horner says Red Bull's defeat in Germany is a wake-up call for the team
Monday, July 25th 2011, 08:55 GMT
Red Bull Racing says that the German Grand Prix has acted as a 'reminder' that it cannot afford to relax if it is going to deliver the world championship again this year.
Having been so dominant in the races earlier in the campaign, neither Sebastian Vettel nor Mark Webber could do anything to stop Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso taking the top two positions in the race.
And with Hamilton's victory ensuring that there has been four different winners in the last four grands prix, it points towards a far more competitive second half of the season.
Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner insists that its German GP performance was not too bad - and that it will actually serve to help motivate his workforce to keep working hard to improve the car and their own performance.
"I think if you look at Valencia, McLaren was down a bit there as well and Ferrari was up a bit, but for sure they are both great teams and they are both pushing very hard," explained Horner.
"We have managed to be competitive at many, many different types of track. We have had pole position at every single GP this year; we have won six out of 10 and been on the podium at every single race, so it is far from a disaster.
"But for sure this race is a reminder that we cannot back off, and not any member of the team is backing off at the moment. Everybody is pushing flat out."
Webber said after the race that he felt Red Bull Racing needed to address the fact that its car was not as fast as it should be in the races – with its single-lap performance being made clear by the fact that the team has taken pole position at every race so far this year.
Horner does not feel there is such a major problem, however – as Red Bull Racing has shown it can fight for wins at every venue.
"You are always learning and we have seen very different climatic conditions here," he said. "It has probably been colder than winter testing and we saw McLaren struggling quite a lot two weeks ago with tyres.
"I think the key to performance is understanding the tyres and getting the most from the tyres, and Red Bull has been pretty consistent across the 10 races whereas other teams have been up and down.
"We will for sure look to learn lessons from this weekend, and the next GP will be in different conditions probably. It is probably going to be another 20 degrees hotter.
"You are always learning, always looking to move forward, but the one thing Red Bull has consistently done is be able to run at the front this year."
He added: "Let's not forget that Lewis at the first GP wasn't that far away, but it has tended to be either McLaren or Ferrari challenging us. This weekend it happened to be both of them, so I think the team has really developed and I think operationally we are very, very strong.
"That is part of the reason that looking at the championship table we have managed to achieve the kind of results we have. I am sure we will see races continue to ebb and flow and hopefully we can maintain a consistent performance. Everyone in the factory is working flat out with bits coming through, so we are in the heart of the development race at the moment."
Credit: AUTOSPORT.COM (www.autosport.com)
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