Horner conveys Red Bull ‘tools’ concern in ‘crucial time’ warning

Christian Horner has exposed a lack of “trust” Red Bull has in its “tools” as it struggles to correlate its wind tunnel findings to on-track performance.

The team principal explained that the Milton Keynes squad is having to revert back to relying predominantly on “track data and past experience” to work its way out of the development hole it finds itself in.

The Italian Grand Prix, in which Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez finished sixth and eighth respectively, underlined problems with Red Bull’s RB20.

To explain the puzzling drop-off in form, Horner has pointed to conceptual issues that date back to the United States Grand Prix last season and the previous car, the RB19.

Even through the winter and noticeably drastic development between the two cars, the issues persisted – and recent updates have exacerbated the balance problems between the “disconnected front and rear” further still.

“If you dig into it, I think there was some of these issues early in the year, even when we were winning races by 20 seconds,” the 50-year-old told media including RacingNews365.

“Recent upgrades, whilst they’ve put load on the car, its disconnected front and rear.

“We can see that. Our wind tunnel doesn’t say that, but the track says that.

“It’s getting on top of that, because obviously, when you have that, it means you can’t trust your tools, so then you have to go back to track data and previous experience.”

‘This time now is crucial’ to save Red Bull’s season

Horner believes the coming weeks will be “crucial” to Red Bull’s season and how it can best unwind some of the issues that have become increasingly embedded in the RB20.

However, despite the three week break between the Azerbaijan and this year’s trip to Austin, the Briton has cautioned the team may not to completely fix the problem.

McLaren is biting at the reigning champion’s heels in the constructors’ standings at just eight points adrift and following the disastrous weekend in Monza, Verstappen’s drivers’ crown is looking more and more under threat from Lando Norris.

“The most important thing is understanding the issue,” Horner said.

“And then I think there are certain fixes that potentially can be introduced, perhaps not to resolve the whole issue, but to address some of it.

“We have [time] before Baku and Singapore, and then we have another mini-break, but that we can work in, between Singapore and Austin, so this time now is crucial.”