Christian Horner delivers bullish RB20 development warning to McLaren
“We see where their strengths are, and where their weaknesses are"
Christian Horner insists Red Bull know where their RB20 must be improved ahead of the final stretch of the F1 season.
McLaren have established themselves as the fastest car on the grid and have overtaken Red Bull to lead the constructors’ championship.
The mighty RB20, which was untouchable at the start of this year, has fallen behind but Horner has vowed to add performance for the upcoming rounds.
“You have to rip up the form,” the Red Bull team principal admitted to Channel 4 about going to circuits where their car is traditionally strong.
“McLaren is the car to beat now.
“We see where their strengths are, and where their weaknesses are.
“We know where we need to improve.
“We’ve got a vein of development now that the team are working very hard on.”
Lando Norris won the Singapore Grand Prix to cut the deficit in the drivers’ standings to 52 points behind Max Verstappen.
But Horner insists that there were rays of light for Red Bull in Singapore, where Verstappen finished second behind Norris.
“Compared to where we were on Friday, which was in the corner, it was a good turnaround from the whole team. Max drove the wheels off it,” he said.
“We didn’t have the pace to take on Lando - congrats to McLaren - but we had everyone else covered.
“We’ve got three weeks to come back fighting in Austin.
“Unlike the summer break, the factory is working 24/7.
“There are six races, and a few sprint races, to go. There is an awful lot of racing to be done.
“We will push to the end, to Abu Dhabi, we won’t give up anything.
“Motivation is high in Milton Keynes. We know it will be six tough races until the end of the year.”
He added: “Look at the performance turnaround from Friday [to Sunday]. Great teamwork, Max put the hours in, the drivers put the hours in, the team in Milton Keynes…
“This is a circuit that we struggled badly at, last year.
“There are competitive signs from the last couple of weekends. “We should have been on the podium in Azerbaijan.
“Let’s look forward to Austin and the tracks coming up, because there is a big variance.”
F1 does not return until October 18-20 in Texas.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
