Red Bull’s Christian Horner admits his team risks losing both drivers’ and constructors’ championships this year if it is unable to find a solution to the issues it faced at the Italian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen’s championship lead over Lando Norris was cut from 70 points to 62 after the Red Bull driver finished sixth at Monza, while McLaren is now just eight points off Red Bull in the constructors’ standings.
The narrowing margins follow a significant drop in form from the reigning champions at recent race.
Verstappen won seven of the first ten races of the season but has now gone six races without a victory, while teammate Sergio Pérez has not finished higher than sixth at the last ten races.
At the Italian Grand Prix, Verstappen finished sixth and Perez eighth, leading Verstappen to saying winning both titles is “not realistic” on the team’s current form.
“With the pace we had today… both championships absolutely will be under pressure, for sure, we have to turn the situation around very quickly,” Horner added.
“I think this circuit has exposed the deficiencies we have in the car versus last year, and I think that we have a very clear issue which has been highlighted this weekend.
“We know we have to get on top of and address, otherwise we put ourselves under massive pressure.”
Both drivers have complained about the difficulty of finding a “balance” in the car, whereby they can trust the car won’t snap into oversteer on corner entry while also ensuring the front end remains responsive enough to get the car turned in through slow corners.
At recent races, Verstappen suggested the lack of balance has been introduced to the car this year, but Horner believes it was there throughout the season and is now being exposed as the team tries to push harder with development to remain ahead of rivals McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari.
“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, others have obviously made a step and as we’ve pushed the package harder it’s exposed the issue,” Horner said.
“If you dig into it there…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at www.espn.com – RPM…