Christian Horner admits 'FUNDAMENTAL' error to blame for Red Bull's Monza nightmare

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Horner admits 'FUNDAMENTAL' error to blame for Red Bull's Monza nightmare

The F1 champs are struggling to understand their troubles

Rhys Thomas

Saturday 31 August 2024 19:57

Christian Horner has admitted that the team have a 'fundamental' issue as Red Bull scramble to find answers to their performances woes.

The Milton Keynes-based team made a roaring start to the season and looked well on their way to a third consecutive constructors' championship.

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Since Lando Norris' win in Miami though, Red Bull have been largely on the back foot.

Rivals have closed the gap each week, and now the team's issues have culminated in a disastrous qualifying performance ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull have been down on pace in Italy

Red Bull were clearly the fourth best team in qualifying at Monza

Why are Red Bull suddenly so slow?

Though Max Verstappen has been able to maintain a relatively healthy championship lead, McLaren have cut the gap to just 30 points in the team standings.

That the Dutch champion could only qualify in seventh, behind both McLarens, Mercedes, and Ferraris, signals the alarming derailment of Red Bull's development path.

As the fourth best team at Monza and with both championships under threat, there is serious urgency at Red Bull to rectify their problems.

"The balance just isn't there, you can hear from Max's comments," team principal Horner told Sky Sports after qualifying.

Throughout practice and the session, Verstappen complained that the car would not turn in low and medium speed corners, and that grip fluctuated between tyre sets of the same compound.

Christian Horner says Red Bull must address their issues quickly

"Something is fundamentally happening that we are not on top of. Q2 didn't look took too bad but in Q3 we were miles away."

Verstappen's P7 time was nearly seven tenths off Norris' pole position lap, and half a second slower than Lewis Hamilton in P6. Sergio Perez, meanwhile, abandoned his final flying lap and was 8th fastest.

"We are looking at everything," Horner continued. "We ran older spec last week to see if that redressed the issues but the reality was we still had the same handling characteristics and issues.

"We need to address it quickly as McLaren have made a significant step over the last few races and we are now behind Ferrari and Mercedes as well.

"Something is clearly not working on the car. There will be an engineering solution to an engineering problem."

Red Bull Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton Lando Norris Christian Horner Kimi Antonelli