Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has revealed the team made a fundamental set-up error at the Bahrain Grand Prix due to a sensor problem.
“It was something on both cars,” Horner confirmed to Sky, “it was basically a sensor issue that has meant that the set-up we thought was on the car actually wasn’t on the car.“It was something quite subtle but the effect of it, difficult to gauge.”
Both drivers found it difficult to achieve the expected lap times on the soft tyre during the previous race, and the team only narrowly beat Haas to third-fastest team behind Ferrari and Mercedes in qualifying.
Red Bull ran different programmes on Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly’s cars during the first practice session in China as it pressed on with development of its Honda-powered RB15. Horner added the lessons learned in the post-race test in Bahrain has helped them make progress.
“We had a good test in Bahrain. We understood a lot of things about the car. It gave us some good direction and it was a really beneficial couple of day. So that was certainly a positive.”
Gasly scored his first points for the team in Bahrain but is yet to reach Q3 this season. He is confident he and the team can make rapid gains in the coming races.
“I’m confident the team, I think Red Bull proved many times they are probably one of the fastest teams to develop the car,” he said.
“For sure I expect the car to be stronger and stronger race after race and for sure my feeling with it will improve. I expect the evolution to go together in the same direction. I’m pretty confident about it and hopefully we can improve really soon and start properly this weekend.”
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Phylyp (@phylyp)
12th April 2019, 7:28
OK, so for those who were thinking the Honda PU had taken RBR backwards, maybe we need to see how they do over a few more races, because it seems like RBR might actually be no worse off than with Renault, maybe even better.
Bart
12th April 2019, 8:10
(dives into stats)
After 2 races Red Bull scored a 3rd, 4th and 8th finish; 31 points after 2 races.
That’s better than 2018 (4,6,DNF,DNF), 2015 (6,9,10,DNS) and 2014 (3,DSQ,DNF,DNF) and just slightly worse than 2017 (3,4,5,DNF) and 2016 (4,4,6,10).
So in their first year with Honda Red Bull did better than their average over the hybrid era. Despite the strategical error that prevented Gasly from getting past Q1 in Australia and the sensor issue in Bahrain. They also scored more points than the two Renault powered teams combined (14). And they blew up 0 engine related parts versus … well a bunch already.
Red Bull is no worse off. Definitely.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
12th April 2019, 8:17
Neat stats, thank you.
pastaman (@)
12th April 2019, 12:52
Not sure why people would be blaming Honda when Red Bull have stated publicly many times this year that it was the chassis causing the problems.
MacLeod (@macleod)
12th April 2019, 8:14
Seems Honda engine is quiet fine, sensor error? I heard someone build up a part the wrong side on (on both cars).
erikje
12th April 2019, 11:44
eye sensor probably then ;)
Ads
12th April 2019, 8:32
I can tell you now if they were still using Renault engines we all know who would be getting the blame.
erikje
12th April 2019, 11:45
if they used Renault engines they probably would not finish 50% of the races until now ;)
stefan
12th April 2019, 20:45
Poor Renault building great engines for years and getting all the blame. just because it’s a weaker and more unreliable engine that Ferrari and Mercedes. Evil red bull should not have said anything but should have been a nice customer paying millions with out complaining about the quality
charlied
12th April 2019, 21:13
If they can do better, let them buid the engines themselves, just like FER and MERC.
Alice
12th April 2019, 10:23
If they were still using Renault engines we all know who would be getting the “GP2” blame.
erikje
12th April 2019, 17:47
But the problem there is, Renault deserved the blame and still does!
Jamis
12th April 2019, 23:47
Well,
1. RBR was using an illegal wing in practice (trying to cheat…again).
2. VER lap times were on mediums while VET and BOT were running hards.
Tomorrow RBR will be .5 sec slower than Red just like the race.
Sorry Marko, tough road ahead.
Daves
13th April 2019, 0:00
First Honda engine failure today Dani’s car.
I imagine there is a bit of anxiety at RBR/Honda today…