Red Bull’s late start on 2022 car makes Jeddah win particularly special – Horner

2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

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Red Bull’s victory in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is particularly special because the team started work on its 2022 car later than its rivals, says its principal Christian Horner.

Max Verstappen took Red Bull’s first win of the season after passing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc with four laps to go at Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

Having fought their Mercedes rivals for the championships until the final races of last season, Horner said his team had made a later start on the RB18 than other teams. Ferrari, which won the 2022 season-opener in Bahrain, previously said they did no in-season development work last year while it prioritised its approach to F1’s new technical rules.

“What I’m particularly pleased with is we probably came on to the development of this car later than than our rivals,” said Horner in response to a question from RaceFans.

“The whole team in Milton Keynes, after the effort that went into [RB]16B last year, the lateness of that championship, the compressed time for this car, they’ve worked incredibly hard. And this is just the kind of result that injects a whole bunch of energy into the factory.”

Start, Jeddah Corniche Circuit, 2022
Gallery: 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in pictures
However he expects an intense development fight with Ferrari and others over the coming rounds. “The first two races have been great racing between the two teams,” he said. “And I think that it’s now going to be about development, about unlocking potential with these cars that are still very immature.

“We can see Ferrari are very, very quick. It’s going to be a very busy period through the rest of the spring now to try and get performance to the cars and understand how the tyres are working and so on over these next few races.”

He is confident Red Bull’s approach to the rules gives them a good basis for development. “You can see there’s a big variance of interpretations of the rules and I think that we’ve come up with a creative solution, and I think it gives us good potential for the season ahead. So to get this early victory is fantastic for the whole team.”

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2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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10 comments on “Red Bull’s late start on 2022 car makes Jeddah win particularly special – Horner”

  1. They did a better job with the new aero rules than, for example, Merc, despite shifting a majority or full focus to this season later.

  2. And once more a big thank you to the new design rules: diverse design solutions; relatively close field, and much better and closer racing throughout.

  3. I remember why Mercedes first came out the sidepod-less W13, a few comments on the public said Adrian Newey has lost the innovative ideas, running out of creativity etc. Now the Red Bull is back to 2021’s consistent front challenger level while the breathtaking unique cars were nowhere to be seen. Well done Red Bull team for keeping the head down.

    1. I think other teams tested and rejected the sidepod-less design as well. How it suits every car might be different. If their Barcelona design was better they’d switch to it, no doubt.

  4. To date, RBR have done the best job with the new regs, especially when you factor in fighting for the championship last year and windtunnel/CFD time allowance.

    Not the easiest team to like but credit where credits due

    1. Not the easiest team to like but credit where credits due

      Not sure what’s not to like about the team. There are maybe a handful of people out of hundreds of Red Bull employees who come across as jerks. It’s not fair to paint the rest of the hard working racers-at-heart with the same brush. Same can be said of Mercedes, Aston Martin, Haas, and any other team on the grid.

      1. RandomMallard
        28th March 2022, 18:34

        100% agree here. I know a couple of people who work at Red Bull (and a couple more who work at other F1 teams) and they’re lovely people. Just a shame about the very top of the structure sometimes.

        1. Noframingplease (@)
          28th March 2022, 21:48

          @RandomMallard I read ‘that I know people….’ earlier in a few comments from you. A bit hilarious. So when you didn’t know them you reallyhad the thoughts that those 1200 man all must be evil? Because Horner is a bit direct in his communication (and also Max), and MB has chosen for the hypocrite way by managing stakeholders, media and fans like you, they are fine with you?

  5. Slimey Horner makes it impossible to like big energy drink team. Also, they probably need to stop broadcasting Max’s embarrasing radio comments. Its doing them no favors.

  6. Hats off to Newey. After so long in the sport he remains at the top of his game.

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