F1 | Horner stings Allison: “The downgrade beat their upgrades”

The Imola-Monaco-Canada triptych undoubtedly represented one of the most difficult phases of the championship for Red Bull, given that, despite presenting different characteristics, the three tracks have some aspects in common which highlighted the weak points of the RB20.

Although it is true that there were elements that contributed to making the last three races “special”, reviewing the ranking reveals that the driver who scored the highest number of points was Max Verstappen himself. The Dutchman was astute and effective in exploiting all the opportunities that came his way, even if, on some occasions, he didn’t have what looked like the fastest car on the grid in his hands.

Speaking of the progress of the opponents, capable of approaching and concretely annoying Red Bull in the previous Grands Prix, on the eve of the Montreal stage theMercedes’ technical director James Allison had speculated that Red Bull had made its RB20 slower with recent updates. Instead of being a reason for improvement, on the contrary, according to Allison, the technical innovations introduced between Japan and Imola slowed down the Milton Keynes car.

“It appears that their update was a downgrade. So, fingers crossed, this could put them in trouble,” Allison explained, adding that if Red Bull actually had correlation problems between track and simulation tools, this would require time to be corrected.

“When an update that doesn’t work, that makes life difficult, because the moment you stop trusting your tools, you have to go back and you lose a lot of time. Time is your greatest friend, losing it is your worst enemy”.

But with Red Bull having prevailed in the Canadian GP in a Grand Prix where there was no shortage of episodes, Horner used the opportunity to respond to Allison’s comments. “Even with our downgrade, we managed to beat their upgrade. It was a rewarding race to win,” said Horner, pointing out that Mercedes were beaten despite bringing a revised front wing and new front wing to the last two Grands Prix. bottom.

The triptych is over Imola-Monaco-Canada, Horner can’t wait to see the RB20 in action on circuits potentially more suited to the characteristics of the car, starting from Barcelona, ​​which enhances the loading and efficiency qualities of the single-seaters, in particular with regards to the medium and high speed curves, so much so that it almost becomes an open-air tunnel.

Christian Horner, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

“The last two races were more eventful for us, but we still managed to win two of the last three races. We took a pole in Imola and managed to equal the pole time in Canada, with a car of which both drivers they feel the weak points. So we focus a lot on this aspect to see if we can improve it”, said Horner referring to the fact that both Verstappen and Perez highlighted the very rigid set-up of the RB20 which made it difficult to manage the passage on the dips in the road. asphalt and curbs, more in the dry than in the wet.

“We know that over the course of the year there will be circuits like Singapore where this issue could be a factor. But we really expect that Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes, with the latter having entered this window during the last weekend, are competitive on every circuit. So I think that, although we have won six out of nine races, we will have to be at the top to continue gaining ground.”

While Mercedes has posed a threat in Canada, Horner believes it is too early to say the German manufacturer is back in the game at the top level. Clearly one swallow does not make a summer and more demanding circuits are also needed to confirm any progress of the W15, which in any case is proceeding in small steps. “Mercedes have always done well on circuits with little grip and here there are no high-speed corners. So the change in asphalt has worked in their favour. So we will see in the next three circuits whether this is an authentic form or whether it is a isolated case,” added Horner, noting how Mercedes has often fared well in slow corners in the last year.