Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes Ferrari is faster on the straights, but still sees the performance of both teams very dependent on the characteristics of each circuit
Ferrari surprised Red Bull and beat their rivals on their home turf, with Charles Leclerc overtaking Max Verstappen three times to win the Austrian GP. The Italian team could have come away with a double, had it not been for Carlos Sainz's engine failure in the closing laps. Christian Horner, boss of the Taurinos, was amazed by the improvement of the red cars on the straights, but expects changes in the order of strength at each track.
"I think they are certainly closer in terms of performance on the straights. But it's a question of who suits each track best. It will be interesting to see how things play out at the next circuits," Horner said after the Austrian GP.
The top speeds recorded in the race don't show a good performance from Ferrari. Leclerc was only 17th with 313.7 km/h, while Sainz was 19th fastest. Verstappen was second, with 321.5 km/h. The Italian team's advantage was mainly in tire degradation. The Red Bull boss knows that the team needs to improve in this aspect and emphasizes that he doesn't think about Ferrari's reliability problems.
"We are not focused on that. That's something we can't control or contribute to in any way. I think we have to focus on ourselves and what we can extract from our package," Christian assessed.
"They had a very strong car and could very well have finished first and second. Until lap 12, the weekend had been great for us, with pole-position and sprint victory. But unfortunately tire wear hit us hard," the British manager lamented.
Ferrari and Red Bull will duel again in two weeks, when Formula 1 returns between July 22 and 24 at Paul Ricard for the French Grand Prix.