Christian Horner admits Red Bull 'can't trust tools' amid 'data issue' revelation

Christian Horner says Red Bull are currently unable to "trust" their tools after seeing "issues" within their data since the latter stages of the 2023 F1 season.

After starting their double world championship title defence strongly by winning seven of the first 10 races and appearing to once again boast a dominant car, Red Bull have six races without a win since the Spanish Grand Prix in June.

The reigning world champions’ RB20 has been dogged by balance and mechanical problems which the team have so far struggled to address, despite introducing a raft of upgrades in recent months.

Max Verstappen could only finish sixth in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza, with teammate Sergio Perez two places behind in eighth. Horner admitted Red Bull have been aware of issues since the start of 2024, and even stretching back to last year’s United States Grand Prix.

“I think it’s been there for some time, I think actually really going through the data there were issues there at the beginning of the year in the characteristics,” Horner said.

“Others have obviously made a step and as we’ve pushed the package harder it’s exposed the issue. Even if you go back in the data there were a few races last year where we started to see this, in Austin, and so on.

“It’s a characteristic we know we have to address, and it’s full focus at the factory to do that.”

He added: “I think if you dig into it there were some of these issues early in the year, even when we were winning races by 20 seconds.

“I think that recent upgrades, whilst it put load on the car, it’s disconnected the front and rear. We can see that, our wind tunnel doesn’t say that, but the track says that.

“So 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.”

Verstappen has seen his advantage at the top of the drivers’ championship cut to 62 points with eight races remaining, while Red Bull’s lead over McLaren in the constructors’ standings has been trimmed to eight points.

Following Sunday’s race, the Dutchman insisted both world titles are under serious threat if Red Bull don’t “turn the car upside down” and make improvements. 

Horner conceded Red Bull are “under pressure” to turn things around.

“I think the most important thing is understanding the issue, and I think there are certain fixes that potentially can be introduced, perhaps not to resolve the whole issue, but to address some of it,” he said.

“We’ve now got a two-week gap before Baku and Singapore, then another mini-break that we can work in, between Singapore and Austin, so this time now is crucial.”