Red Bull mulling timing of strategic engine penalty for Verstappen

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says Max Verstappen will be required to take a grid penalty at some point in the second half of the 2024 F1 season.

The reigning world champion has already faced power unit issues this year that compelled the team to add a new engine to the Dutchman’s pool of hardware after the opening day of running in Canada last month.

Red Bull is therefore considering the most strategic time to boost Verstappen’s inventory as it did last weekend at Silverstone with Sergio Perez.

“I’m sure at some point we’ll end up taking an extra engine for Max,” Horner said at the British Grand Prix, quoted by RACER.

“It’s just a question of when you choose strategically to do that. So we’ll work with Honda on that. Inevitably, we will take a penalty at some point in the year.”

• Read also: Verstappen urges Red Bull not to ‘get lazy’ with development

Despite these challenges, Verstappen has demonstrated remarkable resilience, extending his championship lead to 84 points over the past five races, even though he only secured victories in two of them.

Horner admitted that Red Bull was very attentive to the fluctuating performance of the field, which has seen four different teams clinching wins in 2024.

“Lots of data and information to take out of that, to understand these big fluctuations, because at different points in time, different cars looked quick,” Horner explained at Silverstone.

“One minute, it started off as Mercedes, then it looked like McLaren had everything under control, and then suddenly, second half of the race, Max started coming back and very nearly won it.

“For the fans… a fantastic race. But obviously a lot to try and understand where the fluctuations are coming from.

Horner reckoned that tyre performance has been a big factor in shuffling the running order race in and race out.

“I think it’s all about these tyres,” he said. “I think it’s all about the tyre working at a certain point in time, certain condition, whether it’s hot or cold.

“Different cars working the tyres in different ways, and you saw an extremity of that as a circuit obviously went from damp to wet to damp to back to dry.”

From Red Bull’s perspective, grappling with the competitive order's unpredictability and countering challenges from multiple teams has been demanding.

But overall, Horner believes that multiple teams showing race-winning pace is very beneficial for Formula 1 as a whole.

“I think Formula 1 can’t be in a better place at the moment,” the Briton argued.

“If you look at the last five or six races, we’ve had Lewis , we’ve had Lando , we’ve had Max, we’ve had Charles Leclerc… It’s moving around.

While Red Bull faces the challenge of maintaining its advantage amidst the competitive landscape, Horner acknowledges that Verstappen's consistency has been key to the team's success.

“The only one that’s managed to be there consistently, has been Max. So I think the sport, you can see by the crowds that it’s delivering and so on, and I’m sure Lewis’s win was a very popular win in front of a home crowd.”

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