Verstappen and Red Bull have saved F1 from “bore-fests” – Horner

33 comments on “Verstappen and Red Bull have saved F1 from “bore-fests” – Horner”

1. 

   Robbie (@robbie)
   7th August 2019, 1:02

   Horner. Agreed. Palmer (BBC article). Agreed. CotD. Agreed.
   1. 

      Chaitanya
      7th August 2019, 1:39

      Have to agree with Horner here.
      1. 

         Cooldown
         7th August 2019, 12:22

         Couldnt agree more.
   2. 

      ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
      7th August 2019, 3:00

      Agree on all account.
   3. 

      Phylyp (@phylyp)
      7th August 2019, 4:27

      I mostly agree with Palmer, but am surprised he’s not listed Williams under losers. Instead, it gets a passing mention under ‘The British rookies’ winners.

      It’s hard to believe that it’s the same team that beat RBR in the WCC in 2015 by a decent margin, i.e. the same PU era.
      1. 

         LosD (@losd)
         7th August 2019, 9:09

         @phylyp I guess it’s because they actually seem to show (at least the start of) an upward trajectory compared to the start of the season.

         I’m quite doubtful that it will continue, but here’s to hoping!
      2. 

         GechiChan (@gechichan)
         7th August 2019, 9:20

         @phylyp Williams almost missed the first week of pre-season testing. And when they finally arrived they were 5 seconds slower than everyone else. So, probably, they’re actually seen as winners now after making a bit of progress that enabled Russel to scrap it out in Hungary with the likes of Stroll and Gio.
         1. 

            Phylyp (@phylyp)
            7th August 2019, 9:49

            @gechichan @losd – while I agree that Hungary looked promising, and I’m happy that Williams might finally be bouncing back, I feel its too soon to call, hence my surprise. That article is a retrospective on the ongoing season, and to ignore Williams struggles till date (including the pre-season tests) is – in my opinion – giving them too much leeway.
            1. 

               LosD (@losd)
               7th August 2019, 9:53

               @phylyp Yeah, for sure we’ll need to see more from them.

               Oh, one plus point is that they seem to be in a much better financial situation than they’ve been quite some time. That should also help them drag their car forward.
      3. 

         Joao (@johnmilk)
         7th August 2019, 17:00

         @phylyp even stranger though is that he mentions the British rookies as winners, while the best rookie so far this year is Albon…
2. 

   Ajaxn
   7th August 2019, 1:51

   Agreed…

   It makes you wonder why the likes of Ferrari, with the lion’s shared of the F1 spoils, can’t provide legitimate competition to Mercedes, without bending the rules.

   This is why F1 will go the way of capping spending, and why more of the spoils should go to improving the performance of the mid placed teams.
   1. 

      Ross
      7th August 2019, 4:32

      Lions share of the spoils but it doesn’t mean they’re spending the most. Honda increased its (company-wide) R&D budget by roughly $700million USD last year… I can only (purely speculative) assume that at least some of that were for the F1 program, which by all accounts was already extremely well funded. Given their rapid rate of development compared to last year we might just be witnessing the flex of a billion-dollar collaborative team. MercedesF1 have inputted huge amounts of resource into there R&D for almost 6 years now, with yearly budgets constantly in excess of $400million USD, Ferrari much the same. It’s amazing that Renault has been able to produce an engine that has won on merit with the right package given how comparatively small their $320million USD budget is.

      Personally I don’t agree with Renault’s way of doing business in F1, it should be all in or nothing. Maybe if they took a back seat and spent their entire budget fitting a PU to the back of a McLaren we would have a show…
      1. 

         NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
         7th August 2019, 6:45

         Those are some interesting numbers. Look at Honda now, some consider it #2 engine ahead of Mercedes!!!

         Renault is taunting 1000 bhp number, but either McLaren is still crap, or 1000bhp is not there in the races, or other teams have way more than 1000bhp on maximum settings.

         Mercedes was at 990 range few years back, they should be around 1050bhp by now. It is Ironic they spend so much money for so little advantage.

         With that kind of money and effort they could solve world hunger, put a man on the moon again or something.

         RedBull are well poised to take advantage of the new Honda PU, Mercedes might crumble if they get any serious advantage or Hamilton retires.
         1. 

            Ross
            7th August 2019, 8:38

            I doubt the hype, the PU has won 1 race on merit and Mercedes were barely there over the weekend in question due to heat issues. The Honda qualy mode does seem to be quite powerful, it gave Max a .9sec bump during the race.

            If Renault says they’re producing 1000Bhp they probably are, they have no reason to lie, in fact, the opposite given their current standings, but the cars they’re in are rubbish compared to the top-flight teams.
            1. 

               frood19 (@frood19)
               7th August 2019, 9:58

               renault might be producing 1000bhp at a very specific combination of one point in the rev range, the electrical power at its peak, and the fuel flow at its max. it’s highly likely that this is not sustainable for even part of one lap, so (i imagine) their claim is weasel words, if not bunkum.

               now, just talking about qualifying (the races are totally different), if these cars were producing 1000bhp consistently for a whole lap, with these tyres (wide tyres, i question whether the pirellis are actually any good performance-wise) and aero packages, they should be absolutely flying – i realise they are setting track records almost everywhere, but they’re hardly blowing the 2004 cars out of the water. perhaps the ~140kg extra weight is an important factor here.
            2. 

               Matthijs (@matthijs)
               7th August 2019, 14:01

               @frood19 Indeed. The peak is determined by fuel flow, hybrid systems and what not. I have the feeling that Honda produces less horse power at the max, but is able in the race to run in a high mode longer than some other engine suppliers.
            3. 

               Ross
               8th August 2019, 3:24

               @frood19 engines only produce max power at one point in the rev range… The tyres, just because they’re wide doesn’t mean they’re any more capable of transferring 900bhp to the ground for an entire race. These tyres are extremely temperamental and have to be coaxed into performance through careful manipulation. Pirelli was given a mandate of degradation and that’s what we have. In 2004 they could throw qualifying lap after qualifying lap at the tyres and they would still hold up. Not to mention the fuel limitations we now have, these Power units are absolute monsters compared to the 2004 units. They’re operating at 50% thermal efficiency, which was underheard of in 2004 and producing 850-900 hp from a 1.6L ICE without revving up to 20,000rpm, which is genuinely amazing. The extra weight is a massive deal, 140kg on something that weighs 740kg… Given the restrictions that have been placed on these cars, it is truly outstanding that the engineers have been able to keep peak performance anywhere near what it is, nevermind record-breaking.
3. 

   Jim from US (@jimfromus)
   7th August 2019, 2:28

   Not too sure. Extreme heat took Mercedes out one week and rain took Mercedes out another week. This past week doesn’t really count as a trend. I do hope he is right and I also hope Ferrari can figure out who is destroying their equipment because I am starting to think they have a saboteur in their ranks.
4. 

   DB-C90 (@dbradock)
   7th August 2019, 3:12

   It’s not really a thank god for Max, it’s more a matter of thank got we got the chassis right a lot earlier this year. RBR has made a habit of not starting the season well (especially 2017) and then getting their chassis sorted after the summer break.

   This year they did it earlier and have a half decent PU. That’s what the difference is.

   As for Ferrari – they’re right there with Renault as a team in disarray- good drivers, awful teams.
   1. 

      erikje
      7th August 2019, 18:17

      You still need an exceptional driver to pull it off.
      Look at Gasly in the same car.
5. 

   wayne
   7th August 2019, 5:40

   ” thank God….” lol Horner has a way of making himself his team look like legends. its only a bore fest when your team is not winning…. when the red bulls were winning i dnt recall him saying its a bore fest.
   1. 

      NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
      7th August 2019, 6:45

      Partially because it takes a pretty exciting race for Mercedes not to win. Well sometimes even exciting race is not enough.
6. 

   Vincent
   7th August 2019, 6:55

   I had the brightest idea to save f1: instead of basing the counter of the laps on the first driver on track, the counter is based on the last driver on track. So nowadays the race will be based on 300km traveled by KUB.
   See I saved F1.
7. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   7th August 2019, 7:40

   As I pointed out in the previous article: What about Bahrain’s claimed/reported veto, allowing them to block another country in the same region from joining F1? Yes, Abu Dhabi did get to join the championship back in 2009, but I have some doubts another one could have an easy time getting in. Furthermore, if a Saudi-Arabia GP ever were to happen, then it’d definitely have to take place close to either Bahrain or Abu Dhabi due to the climate. March, April and November are more or less the only suitable months for racing at that part of the world out of the nine months (March-November) during which F1 races take place.
   1. 

      Drop Sochi
      7th August 2019, 13:13

      that was a handshake deal with Bernie.
8. 

   Glamo
   7th August 2019, 7:56

   He’s right but I’d much rather have the rules tightened up so that we have three or four teams fighting for the championship, than leaving it to chance.
   F1 has a habit of thinking everything is fine after a couple of lucky good races.
   1. 

      x303 (@x303)
      7th August 2019, 11:50

      F1 also have a habit of thinking everything is rubbish after just one race.
9. 

   Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
   7th August 2019, 12:55

   F1 needs better media, Ferrari haven’t massively under performed, they were never quick, they had a couple of chances, in bahrain they had 2 sets of the medium for the race which gave Leclerc a big enough buffer to win. Germany is a good track for Ferrari but it rained like last season, that’s that.
10. 

    Mia
    7th August 2019, 13:25

    Typical Horner, doing what he always does best, as STIRRER-IN-CHIEF and with intention to downplay Merc/LH’s roles in the fight. One can say that no thanks to Red Bull for failing in their strategy. No thanks to Max’s lack of skills in tyre management that the fight was not even more exhilarating, but no, fair minded fans celebrate both drivers’ effort. Not Horner though! Until it’s proven, Horner, not just imagined, that Max is better than LW, let’s just celebrate the opportunities for this fight and hopefully more. Only the inferiors need to stir and deliberately overlook someone else’s greatness.
    1. 

       erikje
       7th August 2019, 18:19

       The fact is that max scored more points in the last 4 races then any other driver including ham.
11. 

    Carlos Medrano (@carlosmedrano)
    7th August 2019, 14:09

    Red bull and horner are making f1 boring and god help us if Red bull make a dominant car it would be worse then vettel at red bull
12. 

    grat
    7th August 2019, 20:25

    Now, if only we could stop Horner from banging his own horn.

    He may be right, but he comes across as a twit saying it.
13. 

    Esploratore (@esploratore)
    9th August 2019, 2:50

    Good comment by horner, he completely gets it, the last 4 races were definitely above average, true he may be biased as a red bull team principal and 2 being red bull wins, but silverstone was also a great race if only lacking a bit of competition for the win after the first laps, and hungary was also a great race, surely for its standards of track where it’s hard to overtake.

    Monaco was also relatively good, and canada was great too, though these are not part of the last races.

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