Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said they did not send Max Verstappen out to run in the final minutes of qualifying because they did not want to risk him getting involved in an incident with a rival.
Verstappen had already completed his final run on his last set of new soft tyres when Q3 was red-flagged due to Yuki Tsunoda’s crash. With over two minutes remaining on the clock, there was sufficient time for the session to be restarted.Although Red Bull did not send Verstappen out, both McLaren drivers returned to the track, though neither Lando Norris nor Oscar Piastri were able to improve their times. Out of those who did run again, only Daniel Ricciardo was able to post an improvement, moving up to ninth place ahead of Tsunoda.
As Red Bull’s garage is situated farthest from the pit lane exit, their rival teams had a better chance of getting their cars to it first. With little to gain, and the risk of being involved in an incident by leaving the pit lane too slowly, which Verstappen was investigating for in Austria, Horner said they took the decision not to get involved.
“There was only ever going to be some gamesmanship at the end there,” he told the official F1 channel. “We’d done our lap, we had no tyres left. You’re not going to improve on a used set of tyres so better to save the car, keep it in the garage.”
Verstappen qualified within five hundredths of a second of both McLaren drivers, who locked out the front row of the grid. Although he is the only one of Red Bull’s drivers running their full upgrade package this weekend, he does not believe they were quick enough to challenge them.
“The whole weekend I think we have been a little bit behind and I think that was also the case in qualifying,” he said. “I tried to make it as close as possible but unfortunately just not enough.
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“It’s a bit difficult to pinpoint why that is. I would have liked a bit more grip, but it’s not there at the moment. But P3, still very close. I just hope that for tomorrow the car is good in the race and at least we can follow them and see what we can do there.”
He said Red Bull are facing a “tricky situation” as their rivals are putting them under more pressure.
“I love competition, but I would like to be on top of the competition and at the moment I feel like we are chasing and having a few more difficult weekends,” he said. “But I don’t back out of a fight.”
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2024 Hungarian Grand Prix
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Nick T.
20th July 2024, 17:18
What? Such a bizarre comment.
BasCB (@bascb)
21st July 2024, 12:53
Yeah, really a stark message of not having confidence in Max to be sensible, or what?
Addme (@dontme)
20th July 2024, 17:22
They didn’t send him out, cause he couldn’t improve his lap time is what he also said and that is the main of not only reason. That headline is very liberal with the quotes.
Sham (@sham)
20th July 2024, 18:02
Red Bull playing mind games. I was surprised McLaren played it so straight. I can think of two teams who’d have delayed the others to the limit of the regulations.
One rhymes with Bed Rull and the other has a team principal with the same name a little dog from Kansas.
knightameer (@knightameer)
20th July 2024, 21:34
Yeah right. Sportsmanship is what Redbull stands for in F1.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
21st July 2024, 2:38
It would have been VER’s 3rd flying lap. Not suspicious that a RB blocked NOR in the pits before NOR’s 1st flying lap and then a RB causes a red flag just as VER finishes 2nd run and befor NOR can start a run. Fist pump from CER was odd. TSU not turning his wheel back to the track when he went off was also odd. Don’t think they meant for him to destroy car, just graze the wall.
topflite787
21st July 2024, 10:52
It mentions in the article that this weekend, out of the 2 Red Bull cars, only Max Verstappen’s car has the full upgrade package.
Incidents aside, surely this difference will affect the ability of Sergio Perez to assist Max Verstappen in his race?
Indeed, 2 weeks ago at Silverstone, both the new engine (and consequent pit lane start), and the tyres fitted to the car of Sergio Perez because of the rain were a huge handicap to his race and seemingly that of Max Verstappen too.
To the layman, it appears that Sergio Perez is being disadvantaged and then criticised by Red Bull for his lack of performance.