Red Bull boss Christian Horner lamented rival Ferrari's bad luck and praised "brilliant" Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez in Baku
Red Bull had a perfect day in Baku. On Sunday (12), at the Azerbaijan GP, the energy team had perfect scores: double and best lap. It still saw Ferrari drop out with both cars. Red Bull boss Christian Horner saw a mature performance by Max Verstappen and acknowledged that Sergio Pérez suffered too much from tire wear.
Horner lamented the fact that Charles Leclerc abandoned after an engine blew while leading what was a battle of strategy. But he heaped praise on the Red Bull driver duo. The difference between the two was attrition, according to the boss, indicating that perhaps Perez gave too much attention to the qualifying setup while Verstappen focused on the race.
"It would be fascinating to see what would happen, because Charles stopped at VSC early on. It was very, very early, which would mean a long stint. With a nine-lap lead for both cars, we would be in good shape [to regain the lead], but we couldn't see how it would end. Unlucky for Ferrari, especially Charles, but a good day for our guys, who were brilliant," he said.
"Max had less tire wear than Sergio, so the two were very fair to each other. Then, when Charles went out, he still had a race to go. They both did what we asked: they gave each other space. Without Charles, there wasn't much that could go wrong with the pace we had. It was about bringing the cars home," he assessed.
"Czech was magical yesterday and started very well, but then encountered a lot of wear on the rear tires and quite quickly. Maybe we took too much care of qualifying on his side of the garage, more than the race. Max's car had less wear and it was a mature race from the championship leader. Redemption after last year's tire blowout. And that's why we changed the tires with 20 laps to go," he explained.
"You could see that Checo was on very worn rear tires. Montreal is a similar track to that, so we have to analyze. Our engineers will understand. We saw a change in points from Australia to where we are now, but everything we experienced in 2022 represents only 1/3 of the championship. There is a lot ahead of us," he finished.
Formula One returns next week, June 17-19, in Montreal with the Canadian Grand Prix.