Horner understood Verstappen “venting his frustration” over Red Bull’s strategy

19 comments on “Horner understood Verstappen “venting his frustration” over Red Bull’s strategy”

1. 

   roadrunner (@roadrunner)
   21st July 2024, 20:59

   There was,as usual, nothing wrong with Red Bull’s strategy. If you have a car close behind it’s almost impossible to prevent an undercut. And once you got undercut your best option is to go long. The tire delta allowed Verstappen to easily pass Leclerc and he probably would have passed Hamilton too, if he had started patient. He even did pass him in the middle stint, but ran wide.
   1. 

      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      22nd July 2024, 0:06

      Yes, I’m confident without that collision he’d have been able to pass hamilton again in the last stint, and 3rd looked like the max he could’ve done, which is crazy to think about when you think how dominant red bull was early season.
   2. 

      BasCB (@bascb)
      22nd July 2024, 13:07

      Yeah, it was doable, and with both Hamilton AND Leclerc behind, it was just about a given that he would be undercut by at LEAST one of them.

      I think Verstappen just kept his anger going over having to return the position to Norris at the start, paired with the frustration of knowing/feeling that the car is not there anymore to just take the lead back on track on sheer pace kept Max from the cool judgement and just getting it done we know he is able to.
2. 

   Leroy (@g-funk)
   21st July 2024, 21:10

   Max was doing more than venting his frustration. He was being a petulant child. Comments like Hornets only serve to enable his victim mentality.
   1. 

      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      22nd July 2024, 0:07

      You also need to consider horner’s situation: if verstappen no longer feels at home at red bull, he has a decent option in mercedes, and red bull is on the way down without newey.

      Red bull without verstappen atm is done.
      1. 

         BasCB (@bascb)
         22nd July 2024, 13:08

         Yeah, I agree. The engineer made it perfectly clear that the team was not impressed by Max’ venting already. After the race it’s Horners’ job to keep the team together and move on, having Max be unsettled would be the worst thing after losing Newey!
         1. 

            Leroy (@g-funk)
            22nd July 2024, 13:42

            If Horner had said they would discuss it during the debrief or if he said that as a team they would need to see where they need to improve that would be keeping the team together. Instead he said he understood Max’s frustrations, which just throws the entire rest of the team under the bus by giving them credence.
3. 

   Edvaldo
   21st July 2024, 21:13

   They lost on the undercut because Hamilton went it way too early, he even complained about that later as both his stints with hards had to be longer because of that.

   What wrecked Max’s race was not the strategy, was him getting stuck behind Hamilton. If anything his strategy was better than others, but he had some working to do too and today he didn’t.
   1. 

      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      22nd July 2024, 0:09

      I’m guessing what really cost him was when he ran wide early on after he had overtaken hamilton, so he ended up stuck behind him long term.
4. 

   Colin Spencer (@colin999)
   21st July 2024, 22:01

   Usual petulant Max when he isn’t winning look out he will hit you with both barrels. Shame he wasn’t penalised over the ht with Lewis it might have calmed him down but then again maybe not he thinks he is the ‘golden boy’.
5. 

   Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
   21st July 2024, 23:27

   According to one of the Sky TV race commentators Max had stayed up late into the night doing “sim-racing”, and then got out of bed early in the morning to do more sim-racing. If true, and I suspect it is true, then Max should blame himself. Lack of sleep has a similar influence on one’s driving as alcohol. Max is one of the highest paid drivers in the world, and one would expect a driver paid what he gets to prepare themselves before they get into their vehicle. Sleep deprivation is poor preparation. One can’t be surprised if a sleep deprived driver crashes or collides with other vehicles. Driving starts the night before you get into your vehicle. I know this sounds like preaching to a child, but it seems Max hasn’t been listening to the expert medical advice he was given: You should have about 8 hours of sleep prior to driving.
   1. 

      Sumedh
      22nd July 2024, 4:36

      I remember reading about a Hamilton incident where he had gone to see shooting of Martian movie in between Qualifying and Race in 2015 (coincidentally that was Hungary too).

      Post-which, he went on to deliver his worst race of 2015. And his off-track activities definitely played a small part (major was Malaysia of course, and the clutch issues) in losing the 2016 title as well.

      Could something similar be happening to Max now?
      1. 

         Jere (@jerejj)
         22nd July 2024, 6:36

         Sumedh I don’t recall anything like that, but I assume that part of filming took place within Europe, meaning he didn’t get a lot of back-and-forth travel, albeit definitely still unnecessary within such a small interval.
6. 

   Grapmg
   22nd July 2024, 11:06

   Tsunoda was the only one on a one stop strategy and it worked out for him. Maybe Ferrari/Leclerc or Max could have naked a one stop work as overtaking on track proofed difficult.
   1. 

      slowmo (@slowmo)
      22nd July 2024, 14:29

      The Ferrari strategy for Leclerc was baffling to me, they ran him long in the first stint to get a tyre advantage then just threw that away by swapping early for the last stint to briefly get track position on Verstappen. That then resulted in him having to managing Medium tyres until the end unable to really push and use the extra grip. In the end it probably cost him a shot at Hamilton and left him defenseless against Verstappen anyway. For me Ferrari threw away a potential fourth place.

      Verstappen had the optimal strategy in terms of outright pace but he lost out because he was unable to get the job done on Hamilton. He can complain bitterly all he wants but as soon as Mercedes pitted early to undercut that meant at some point Verstappen had to get the job done on track and that was on him, nobody else. I suppose a one stop gamble might have meant he would have been in front of Hamilton but he’d already used too much of his tyres in that first stint so there was no way he could extend them for another 8 laps when he was already losing over a second lap relative to Hamilton on his fresh hards.

      I mean Horner is right that Verstappen was venting frustration but ultimately he was responsible for the strategy that they had to execute given his performance in the first stint.
7. 

   BLS (@brightlampshade)
   22nd July 2024, 13:37

   Horner has to say what he says here in public. You just hope he’s saying other things behind closed doors.

   That said, Horner et al. has been enabling Max for years now over the team radio. Yesterday was just a case of reaping what you sew.
8. 

   BMW P85 V10
   22nd July 2024, 19:55

   Red Bull made the opposite mistake of Mclaren with their strategie. Red Bull was aiming for a win/ second place where they where no where near the McLarens and finding the best strategie to defend 3rd place would have been better.
   I think the first undercut from Lewis could not be prevented. But with the knowledge of Lewis having two sets of hard tires whereas themselves had a medium and a hard set putting on the hards in the second stint was a mistake.
   In order to take maximum profit of the hard tire they had to commit to a long 2nd stint which would automatically leed to being undercut once more. Pitting early from the hards would mean tire advantage of the mediums in the last stint was compromised.

   Same mistake could be seen at Mercedes when dropping down the order in ’22. Strategies where calculated the same as “winning” strategies, but in the midfield there’s more to take in account then just your direct rival.
   Strategy wise, Red Bull should admit to themselves they don’t have a winning car any more and adjust their way of thinking to it.
9. 

   Patrick (@anunaki)
   22nd July 2024, 20:14

   The strategy didn’t look optimal. Especially the 2nd undercut could’ve been prevented. No way Lewis or Charles could overtake him if he had track position and he was probably never going to catch any of the McLaren cars.

   In sports you can get mad over those mistakes. And then you talk about it after the race.
10. 

    Dale
    22nd July 2024, 23:22

    The tail is wagging the dog over at Red Bull nowadays.
    Seems they’re so scared to upset Max, they’ll even flay themselves in the media for him. The only one prepared to stand up to Max and his tantrums is JP, and that’s probably only because of their personal friendship.
    Markko is completely ridiculous recently … it’s like now that Mateschitz is gone Helmut wants to burn it all down rather than take orders from anyone else.

    Now we understand why Mateschitz was trying to sell the team to Porsche before he passed on.

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