Red Bull seeking answers for British GP struggles
Red Bull says it needs to get to the bottom of why it struggled to match the pace of Mercedes and Ferrari at the British Grand Prix, just a weekend on from its encouraging showing in Austria.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB13
JEP / Motorsport Images
The Milton Keynes-based team had headed into its home race bullish about its chances of taking the fight to the top two teams after Daniel Ricciardo finished just a few seconds off the leaders at the Red Bull Ring.
But neither Ricciardo nor Max Verstappen had the pace to threaten for the win this time out and both men finished off the podium – although Ricciardo did charge up the field from 19th on the grid to finish fifth right behind his teammate.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner said his team needed to work out at its factory this week why things had not gone as well as hoped at Silverstone.
"I think we felt that we were a bit off," said Horner. "I am not sure we got the most out of the car this weekend. We struggled a little bit in the low speed corners, so there is quite a bit to go and understand, analysis wise, why that is."
Horner suggests, however, that one factor that may have hindered it was the fact that the amount of full throttle required at Silverstone this year meant it was more a power track than it had been in the past.
"Silverstone now, with this new generation of cars, is again 70 percent full throttle for a percentage of the lap. And again, that is quite painful in comparison to our rivals."
Hungary push
Red Bull is introducing an aerodynamic update for the Hungarian Grand Prix which Ricciardo has described as "significant", in its bid to grab another win.
Horner has moved to try to play down the changes though, and instead suggested the tweaks are part of a season-long plan by the team to constantly improve its car.
"It is all part of the evolution," he said. "I wouldn't call it significant. I would say it is again relatively subtle in terms of a constant process of trying to get performance on the car."
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