Horner: Wake up call for Red Bull
Monday 25th July 2011
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted on Monday that their disappointing performance at the German Grand Prix had served as a wake-up call.
Drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel respectively finished third and fourth at the Nurburgring behind race winner Lewis Hamilton of McLaren and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.
It was the first time this season that defending world champion Vettel had finished lower than second - the German building a runaway lead in this year's title after winning six of the first eight races.
Both Vettel and Red Bull still hold commanding leads in the drivers' and constructors' championships but with McLaren and Ferrari having now won three of the last four races, Horner said his team needed to respond.
"We have managed to be competitive at many, many different types of track," he said. "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."
Horner stressed that Red Bull will take a close look at how their performance fell below-par at the weekend.
He suggested that unseasonal weather conditions on race day - when the temperature struggled to reach 12 degrees Celsius - might have played a part and said that this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix could be a different story.
"I think that if you look at Valencia, McLaren was down a bit there as well and Ferrari was up a bit, but they are both great teams and they are both pushing very hard," Horner said.
"You are always learning and we have seen very different climatic conditions here.
"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 in understanding the tyres' performance 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 - but 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."
It became further apparent this weekend that Pirelli's tyre compounds were now lasting longer in European conditions than they had done earlier in the year.
Drivers are adjusting as a result, with Hamilton and Webber appearing to cope better than team-mates Jenson Button and Webber this weekend at least.
Webber said on Sunday that the latest developments of Pirelli's tyres indicated that "things are coming my way now" as he had struggled with the fast-wearing rubber used previously.
However, the Australian also conceded after the race that Red Bull's advantage is not what it was.
Horner added that it is now time for "everyone in the factory to be working flat out with bits coming through, so we are in the heart of the development race at the moment".
Credit: ESPN STAR (www.espnstar.com)
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