Christian Horner was complimentary about his new charge’s performance on Sunday, as Yuki Tsunoda delivered two points for Red Bull with a ninth place finish in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
It is the first time this season the team have scored with both cars, but while that was cause for celebration, Red Bull’s overall performance was not. Max Verstappen struggled on the hard compound tyre, there were issues in the pit lane and neither car had the pace to run near the front.
But in a game of damage limitation, sixth and ninth could have been a lot worse all things considered – with Horner reflecting on the performance of Tsunoda, who started P10, after the race.
“I thought actually Yuki [Tsunoda] has had a very solid weekend, he qualified in the top 10, finished in the points today, he drove pretty well,” Horner told the media after the Grand Prix.
“He was only 12 or 14 seconds behind his team mate so I thought Yuki’s race was actually reasonable today.”
Tsunoda was able to avoid the hard compound tyres during the race, but Verstappen was forced onto the C1 rubber in his second stint – and that did not go well for him, as he dropped down the field to last place.
But neither driver was aided by a slow first stop, with Red Bull’s traffic light system not giving them the green ‘go’ light once the wheel change had been completed.
“Well the first stop, Max came in and the light didn’t do anything and of course it’s a very simple system that we expected… the button hadn’t been pressed hard enough by one of the technicians, and the next pit stop was within one minute and then it happened again and at that point, we went into a manual override on the system and the chief mechanic released the car,” Horner explained.
“I think we need to look into it, I’ve just heard that there was some kind of wiring or electrical issue with the gantries, one I certainly haven’t seen before.
“The drivers live by those traffic lights and the actual stops were pretty good, there was a two-second stop but then the drivers are waiting for the lights – and then obviously it didn’t go out… We’ll have a good look at it.”
Tsunoda pleased to grab his first points for Red Bull with P9 finish
Tsunoda pleased to grab his first points for Red Bull with P9 finish
Between the pit lane issues, the tyre problems and the fact that Verstappen complained about brake issues throughout the race, things could have been a lot worse for Red Bull – but the fact remains that both McLaren and Mercedes scored big in Bahrain, making the championship battles that bit harder.
“We’ve been struggling with two issues this weekend: one a braking issue and secondly just an imbalance, and when you have that, then tyre deg [degradation] etc, everything looks worse,” added Horner.
“On top of that we’ve had a horrible day where we had what looks like a wiring loom issue in the pit gantry that has caused there to be a problem with the traffic light. So yes, all in all to actually come away with a sixth place and limit it to an eight-point deficit to Lando [Norris], with the challenges that we’ve had…”
Red Bull don’t have long to get on top of their car and technical issues, with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix following hot on the heels of Bahrain in just a few days’ time. They need to score big in Jeddah though, with McLaren already a mighty 80 points ahead in the Teams’ Championship.
