Horner: Vettel should keep his nose out
Red Bull team Principal Christian Horner has denied Sebastian Vettel’s claims that the team needs to change its approach in order to ensure they can continue to win races, and told the German to focus on winning the championship rather than telling others how to do their job.
Vettel stormed into a commanding lead in the drivers’ championship after picking up six wins in the first eight races of the season, but the Milton Keynes-based outfit are without a win in the last three races with both Ferrari and McLaren taking strides forward to narrow their speed advantage.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso took the chequered flag at the British Grand Prix last month while McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button picked up victories in Germany and Hungary respectively - a run of results that marks Red Bull’s worst run of form since 2010 where they failed to win at the Belgian, Italian and Singaporean races.
“We work as a team and the drivers don’t need to tell the team we need to respond.” – Christian Horner
Vettel’s lead in the world championship widened to 85 points after the German came home in second in the Hungarian Grand Prix having started on pole, but he insisted after the race things had to change in order to keep the chasing pack at bay.
“It’s fair to say that in the last couple of events Ferrari and McLaren on race pace have made a step forwards, we need to have a look why.” He said.
“But we also need to have a look at ourselves, there is plenty of stuff to learn and things that we can improve without looking at the others. That has to be a target for the next race and for the second half of the season.
“With so many races you have to be prepared and you shouldn’t be surprised if you face some difficult races. But the target for the next race is to attack completely and try to win again.” He added.
But now Horner has refuted the claim that Red Bull must change tact in order to pick up race victories in the second half of the season, and told Vettel to keep his mind focused on picking up race wins rather than telling the team how to do their jobs.
“We work as a team and the drivers don’t need to tell the team we need to respond.” He told BBC Sport.
“Ferrari and McLaren are going through a competitive phase but we’re still right there. We’re pushing flat out.”
Horner also denied that Red Bull’s dominance was over after the disappointing run of results, pointing to the fact that while they have won plenty of races this season, few have been runaway victories.
We don’t look at it like that,” said Horner. “We need to keep doing the best job we can and keep getting developments to the car.
“If you look at all the races this year, I don’t think there are any races that we’ve run away and hugely dominated.”
“If you think back to Melbourne, Hamilton was closely behind Seb and in Barcelona, even in Valencia Alonso was very tight with us.
“Operationally we’ve been very, very sharp and we’ve extracted the best from the car on a grand prix weekend and that’s where the team has been very strong this year.
“These tyres are very complicated but the one thing that has been consistent is Red Bull running at the front.”
Keep checking back to Formula1fancast for the latest reaction to the Hungarian Grand Prix, while if you are hungry for more on Hamilton’s current team-mate Jenson Button, check out our Gallery on the McLaren man – 20 facts you never knew about Jenson Button
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Vettel is leading by 85, not 83 points…