Christian Horner defends Red Bull Racing strategy

Until just over 20 laps from the finish, Christian horner and the entire low wall Red Bull Racing could believe in a double of Max Verstappen after his victory in Germany last week.

The Dutchman had contained the attacks of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), then on an identical strategy and set of hard tires (although cooler by a few laps), and the Briton had started to complain about the temperature of his brakes.

But it’s another wall and another stand that will play the right strategic trick. Mercedes chooses to bring in Lewis Hamilton for a set of new medium tires. Taken by surprise, Red Bull Racing finally leaves its driver on track... who will not be able to resist the return of the world champion, Verstappen having to deal with destroyed tires.

A choice nevertheless defended by Christian Horner. “Max did everything we asked of him, he controlled the race in the first laps, underlines the manager of Milton Keynes. We had to 'cover' for Lewis by stopping early, and Mercedes was very fast today.

They pushed, pushed, pushed and we were able to defend. Max and Lewis were so far ahead of the field with 22 laps to go that Mercedes rolled the strategic die and gave Lewis new tires.

If we had stopped to cover this strategy we would have conceded track position and so we gambled on reaching the end of the race. Congratulations to Mercedes and Lewis today, they managed to take the lead with three or four laps to go.

At that point, we had nothing left to lose other than passing a new set of softs and setting the fastest lap. »

Horner, however, does not hide his disappointment, at the end of a weekend where Max Verstappen achieved his first pole position yesterday in qualifying. “Second and sixth positions are slightly frustrating for a day that promised more, continues the Team Principal.

Max has closed his gap to Valtteri in the Drivers' Championship and the whole team now heads into a well-deserved summer break with a real performance from the car in the final races. »

Discover the full report and analysis of the Hungarian Grand Prix, produced by our special correspondents in Budapest, in issue 2228 of AUTOhebdo, available from tomorrow evening in digital version and from this Wednesday on newsstands.