Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has made it clear that the fight for both the constructors’ and drivers’ titles is far from over, despite McLaren overtaking Red Bull in the standings following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
With Oscar Piastri’s victory and Lando Norris’ impressive recovery drive from 15th to fourth, Red Bull experienced another stumble, falling from the top of the standings for the first time since the 2022 Miami Grand Prix.
Horner acknowledged the challenging weekend endured by his team but stressed that there is still a long way to go in the championship battle.
Reflecting on the damage limitation in the drivers' standings, where Norris managed to gain just three points on Max Verstappen, Horner remained optimistic.
"I mean if you look at it before the weekend, based on where we were in Monza, what has he taken, three points off him?" commented Horner.
"It's frustrating, particularly after where Lando qualified, that we didn't beat him, but thankfully he hasn't scored big points. But we've got to build on what we've learned already and there's still a lot of racing to do.”
Red Bull now faces a 20-point deficit in the Constructors' championship, but Horner emphasized that the team is prepared to fight back.
"We took a big hit in the constructors' today, but we've got 20 points as deficit now, so we've got to attack,” he added.
“Still got seven races to go, two sprint races to go. There's a lot of points up for grabs and a lot of different circuits coming up, so it's far from over."
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One of the weekend's surprises was Sergio Perez outqualifying Verstappen for the first time since Miami last year.
Perez’s strong form in Baku put him in contention for the win, but his race was marred by incidents, particularly his late-race collision with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Reflecting on Perez's performance, Horner was disappointed with how the race unfolded.
“Frustrating, because with Checo, he certainly should have been on the podium at the very least in third place, probably second," he contended.
"I think actually he could have won that race, had it not been for… he lost a lot of time behind Alex Albon initially and then Lando whilst he was on new tyres and Oscar was still out on the old tyres.”
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Horner highlighted how Norris’ defensive driving allowed Piastri to maintain his lead, costing Perez valuable time.
“Lando backed him up, which allowed Oscar to keep track position, and I think without that, we would have been ahead of Oscar, and he would have passed Leclerc and he would have been fine, so hugely frustrating,” her added.
The incident between Perez and Sainz, which saw both cars sustain heavy damage, was another point of frustration for Horner.
"You can quite clearly see that Carlos, if you take the wall as a reference and the white line on the right-hand side of the track, you see him look in his mirror and just drift to the left, knowing that he was there, and Checo doesn’t move left or right, so hugely frustrating to lose that."
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