Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has suggested that Max Verstappen’s retirement at the F1 Australian Grand Prix is a fuel system issue.
Max Verstappen suddenly stopped the car on lap 39, when he was running second following Charles Leclerc (Ferrari). There was a flame in the back of the car, and Verstappen instructed Marshall to extinguish the fire.
Before the stop, Max Verstappen said on team radio that he “smells a strange liquid.”
Max Verstappen, who retired for the second time in three races this season, retreated to 6th place in the drivers’ ranking despite winning the previous Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, 46 points behind the leader Charles Leclerc. It became.
After the race, Max Verstappen and Retired said, “It’s pretty frustrating and unacceptable,” and “I don’t want to think regarding the championship fight at this point” because “it’s miles behind.”
Christian Horner sympathized with Max Verstappen’s anguish.
“His frustration is completely understandable. It was a really disappointing result to not finish the race,” Christian Horner told Sky Sports F1.
Christian Horner suggested that the cause of the failure was the fuel system, but said it was “totally different” from the fuel system vacuum that forced the two cars to retire in the opening round.
“I still don’t know what the problem is. It seems that it was a problem with the fuel system outside the tank that caused the problem.”
“It was a very frustrating race because we needed to understand exactly what caused the failure. It’s a really disappointing result that we mightn’t finish the race.
“Maybe it’s a fuel problem, but we need to get the car back. We need to find out exactly what happened.”
“It’s all too early to get the car back. No data or information until the car is back.”
“It’s difficult to make a hypothesis. Rather, I want to know the facts.”
Red Bull Racing mechanics worked on the front of Max Verstappen’s car before the race and made gearbox-related changes overnight, but Christian Horner feels they have nothing to do with retirement.
“I don’t think it’s related to that, but as I said, it’s all premature until you get the car back,” said Christian Horner.
“Entering the quarantine, the parts will be returned to Japan. Of course, we are trying to understand the problem as soon as possible.”
The only positive thing regarding Red Bull is that Sergio Perez finished second and took his first podium in the last season.
But except for the moment of the second safety car restart, Max Verstappen didn’t seem to be able to challenge Leclerc.
“As Max said, there wasn’t a pace to compete with Charles today,” added Christian Horner.
“They were in their own league. It’s frustrating not to get those points.”
“But Champion Sim’s journey is just over 10%, so I think a lot of things will still happen.”
“In the first two races, I gave up 36 points for Max. I gave up 50 points for the team. In that respect, the Constructors’ Championship and the Driver’s Championship are very different.”
“It’s been a long season and we have a fast and competitive car foundation, but we need to solve these problems quickly.”
“I don’t accept DNF, but I need to understand what the problem is. I need to deal with it.”
Category: Category: F1 / Red bull / Honda F1
