Still a cold shower for the Red Bull at the start of the 2022 season, thanks to the sensational retirement of Max Verstappen in the Australian Grand Prix. The reigning world champion, during the 39th lap, had in fact to raise the white flag due to another problem of a technical nature, thus collecting another ‘zero’ after the one already suffered in Sakhir, in which even his teammate Sergio Perez was the victim of a similar episode. Needless to point out the anger and disappointment of the reigning Dutch champion, perfectly shared by his team principal Christian Hornerwhich now sees Ferrari flee to the top of the constructors’ standings with a 55-point advantage over the Anglo-Austrian team.
All this, moreover, after only three races, waiting for the next appointment in the ‘house of the enemy’ in Imola, scheduled from 22 to 24 April: “His frustration is totally understandable – underlined the British manager – it was a disappointing result not to finish the race and we still don’t know what the problem is, but I don’t think it’s related to the engine. It could be a fuel or hydraulic problem, but we need to get the car back and investigate. It’s desperately frustrating, not least because we didn’t have the pace to battle Charles, just like Max said. Ferrari was in a league of its own. It’s frustrating not to have scored any points, and I don’t think what happened is related to the changes we made before the race. I’d rather fix a fast car than have a slow, reliable one. We need to move forward and cannot accept withdrawals – he added – now we have to understand what the problem was and solve it ”.
Regardless of the episode that cost Verstappen to retire, Horner also underlined other drawbacks highlighted by the number 1 throughout the Australian weekend, then congratulating Sergio Perez for the performance that earned him second place: “I can say that Max was not comfortable with the car all weekend – He admitted – the tires wore out quickly, and we couldn’t get them into the window. Charles, on the other hand, did not have the same problems with tire degradation. We have some things in the pipeline to fix this. All credit goes to Perez: lost positions again due to the Safety Car, and was unlucky. He then recovered with a great pass on Lewis on the outside, and finally had to pass George again ”.
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