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Horner denies Russell’s Red Bull F1 sandbagging claims
Russell said in Melbourne that Red Bull had been “holding back” and was not going all out for now amid concerns that rivals might find a way to rein it in with rule changes.
Red Bull have won all three races held so far in 2023, with the first two finishing 1-2.
At the Australian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen was 10-12 seconds ahead of runner-up Lewis Hamilton for most of the race, while teammate Sergio Perez recovered after starting from the pit lane to fifth place.
“They’re definitely backing off,” Russell told BBC 5 Live in Melbourne. “They’re almost ashamed to show their full potential because the faster they look globally, the more the sport will try to stop them somehow.
“I think, actually, they probably have a seven-tenth advantage over the rest of the field. Max has no reason to push it, and neither has Red Bull.
“They’ve done so well, we can’t take that away, we obviously have to raise our level.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23
Photography: Jack Grant / motorsport pictures
Horner laughed off Russell’s suggestion of sandbags, and stressed that some tire management was inevitable in Melbourne, especially given that – like its rivals – both Red Bull drivers had their tires replaced early.
“He’s been very generous,” he said when told about Russell’s comments. “I mean, his team will be very aware of those strengths.
“There’s always an element of management in any race. You can see that because it’s a one-stop race, and a very early one-stop race, there’s an element of tire management going on and that’s what they are doing.
“Checo didn’t hang around, and he didn’t back down seven-tenths of a lap because he didn’t want to show it. The grid is definitely closer at this venue.”
On the specifics of Melbourne’s form, he added: “We’ve obviously put more weight on the cars for the race than qualifying. You might see that the cars that warm up their tires more aggressively suffer in the race. The loss is greater.”
Since you can get 26 points, why should you be satisfied with 25 points? That was Max Verstappen’s mind as he successfully attempted to set the fastest lap in the closing stages of the Spanish Grand Prix.
McLaren driver Norris scored a season-best third in Spain, but he won when he clashed with Hamilton’s Mercedes on the first lap and had to pit at the end of the opening round. Hopes for points were dashed.
Hamilton escaped without major damage and went on to finish second.
After his final 17th place, Norris stressed that even before the touch, he expected points struggles due to McLaren’s continued struggles with speed and the position of several drivers further out.
Mercedes driver George Russell recovered from 12th to third, while Sergio Perez’s Red Bull team moved from 11th to fourth on the grid.
Norris said: “The pace today was as expected, which is bad. I don’t think we were really expecting anything else.
“Our aim was to possibly score points, but we didn’t expect it to be like yesterday.”
Asked if points would have been possible without Hamilton’s influence, Norris replied: “Probably not, no.”
He then added: “Because we’re slow, we’ve had a full year. I don’t know, there’s nothing to say.
“Yesterday was a special day. Some good teams struggled and some worse teams did better, so it was just a weird day, people made a lot of mistakes and we just took advantage of that.
Lando Norris and the grid mechanic for the McLaren MCL60
Photography: Jack Grant / motorsport pictures
“Other than that, we’ve been behind all season and struggled for points halfway through the race. It was the same thing today. People expected us to have a very tough day today.
“We’re obviously nowhere near Alpine, Aston or all these top five, top six teams.
“It’s pointless to think ‘we’re going to score points’ because we’re not going fast enough.”
Explaining the clash with Hamilton, Norris said it was sparked by Hamilton checking to avoid Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz as they recovered from off-track runs while battling for the lead going into Turn 1. .
Norris described it as “just a racing incident”, explaining: “I did see Max go off the track at Turn 1, go a little wide, so he had to roll over the curb at Turn 2 and then Everyone checked it out.
“I was too close to Lewis to react and brake and all that. So it was just an unfortunate moment. Lewis was fine, he didn’t do anything wrong.”
Max Verstappen has 26 points after the weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. Helmut Marko is very pleased with his driver’s fifth victory of the season. Afterwards, the 80-year-old Austrian veteran also talked about Verstappen’s insistence on driving the fastest time.
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