Christian Horner suggests Red Bull have 'fundamental' issue after Italian GP qualifying
"We’re looking at everything. We ran an older spec last weekend to see if that addressed the issues at all."
Christian Horner has conceded that “something fundamentally” is impacting Red Bull’s on-track performance after they struggled in F1 qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez could only secure seventh and eighth on the grid for Sunday’s race at Monza.
It’s Verstappen’s worst qualifying result since the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix, when he failed to make it into the top 10.
It continues Red Bull’s recent run of poor results, leaving their position at the top of the F1 constructors’ championship seriously under threat.
Weirdly, Verstappen’s best time in qualifying came on used tyres in Q2 - which was four-tenths faster than his eventual best lap in Q3.
Reflecting on Red Bull’s issues, Horner told Sky Sports: “It’s very tricky. We simply don't understand how we did a 1m19.6s on scrubbed tyres and then couldn't go faster on new tyres than a 1m20s, the balance just isn't there.
“You can hear from his comments that something fundamentally is happening that we aren't on top of and we need to understand why on the older tyres we were able to do a lap-time and then on two sets of new tyres not get anywhere near it.
"In Q2, it didn't look too bad, still the handling characteristics Max were talking about, but in Q3, there was something amiss that all the others can improve on new tyres but we were miles away, so we need to understand it quickly.”
In a bid to cure their issues, Red Bull reverted to an older specification of floor at the last race at Zandvoort.
However, it didn’t change much for Verstappen - who ran the older floor - finishing over 22 seconds off the lead.
Horner added: “We’re looking at everything. We ran an older spec last weekend to see if that addressed the issues at all.
“The reality was we still had the same handling characteristics and issues with that with the earlier spec from the beginning of the year. An awful lot of data for the guys but a lot to get our head around.
“We need to address it quickly. We can see that the McLarens have made a significant step over the last few races. We’re now behind Ferrari and Mercedes here as well. A lot to do. Race points are tomorrow but obviously starting seventh and eighth, that’s going to be tough.”
