Christian Horner sat down in Singapore to answer a few questions. With his team leading both F1 championships Red Bull Racing’s team principal had a lot to say …
Christian, will events this weekend set the tone for the run-in to the end of the season?
I’m asked the same thing before and after every race. Is this the key turning point in the Championship…? I think this weekend is an important race for all the guys in the hunt for the Championship. You have five contenders and it’s going to be down to who makes the least mistakes, who’s the most consistent, who’s the most competitive during the remaining five events.
We were really pleased to finish the European season in the shape that we did – unexpectedly leaving Europe leading both championships; but it’s so tight it’s going to be a fascinating run in over the next five races.
Do you think the drivers will be overly-cautious with so much at stake? Will it make the racing dull?
I can’t speak for other drivers, but certainly ours are focussed on one race at a time. We’ve come to Singapore to do the best job we can, to optimise the performance of the car and hopefully that will see us score heavily and then we’ll turn our focus to Japan.
'It’s going to be down to who makes the least mistakes'
The Red Bulls have had poor starts recently. Is that likely to be a problem in Singapore?
The last two or three events we’ve not been fantastic off the start-line. We’ve had a good look at that, we’ve understood a few issues and I’m confident we should see good starts here this weekend.
What’s involved?
There are many factors: from clutch setting to engine mapping to the preparation on the warm-up lap, to the driver input. There are a lot of variables you have to bring together and it’s quite a complex procedure to hit the sweet-spots. But we’ve done a lot of homework over the last few weeks, understood a lot of issues, managed to tidy a lot of things up and hopefully we should see both drivers make good starts this weekend.
What was the problem?
Sebastian’s start in Monza was OK; Mark’s wasn’t fantastic; there was a little bit of wheelspin in there; a little bit of short-shifting as well so it wasn’t optimum. The problem in Spa was completely different. It caused the car to go into an anti-stall [mode] and Mark reacted massively quickly to that, which enabled him to lose very few places. So, with the starts, it’s never one thing. Many things need to come together. The most important thing is that we get good starts from now until the end of the season.
Has the competitive order changed since the Hungarian Grand Prix? McLaren seem convinced the new floor rules and tests have pegged Red Bull back while they’ve improved their car..
Hmmm… I don’t know. I still see Ferrari as the biggest threat. They have a quick car and arguably they’ve been the closest to us since halfway through the year. They had a bit of bad luck in the middle of the season around Valencia and Silverstone, but were quick in Hockenheim, closest to us in Budapest.
'I still see Ferrari as the biggest threat'
Obviously Spa did go their way but they were quick again in Monza – so arguably I see Ferrari as the biggest challenge. But we’re ultimately focussed on our own performance. But rather than spending time and energy worrying about what others are doing, we’ve tended to focus on ourselves.
And does it help them to have [Massa] riding shotgun?
They’re playing a slightly different game, but ultimately we have to beat everybody, and I’d rather have two guys competing for the championship than one – and we’ll continue to support our guys as fairly and as equally as we can.
The new tests coincided with two races at tracks that didn’t favour Red Bull. Will we see the true picture here, or will the upgrades everybody has interfere with that?
I think the flexi-test effects are negligible; they haven’t affected the front wings that we run. Inevitably the forward floor tests have affected all teams to varying degrees – but from what I understand it’s affecting us somewhat less than our competitors. But this is a unique track. It’s a street circuit, it’s bumpy, it’s low grip – certainly at the beginning of the weekend – and it’s going to be fascinating to see how that pans out. I think it will be Japan or potentially Korea before you get a detailed picture [of performance] because street circuits tend to be different.
'It’s going to be fascinating to see how it pans out'
How about experience? The other teams and drivers involved in the fight have all won championships, will that be an issue?
Well, how to you get experience? You go through the scenarios that we’ve been through. I’ve got no doubt that the team and the drivers are fully equipped to deal with the pressures of a championship. Let’s not forget Ferrari and McLaren are in different guises to what they were previously.
You’re experienced as both a driver and a manager – if you had the choice of either the drivers’ of the constructors’ title, which one would you choose?
Oh I’m greedy, I’d always want both. They’re important in different ways. The drivers’ carries the prestige and tends to be the one everybody remembers but the constructors’ is based on our performance as a team – so from a team perspective the constructors’ is of huge significance… but the public tend to remember the drivers’
'Oh I’m greedy, I’d always want both'
Over the last two races mistakes have turned the Championship on its head. As a team what can you do to minimise errors and slipups?
I think it’s a question of focussing on the basics and doing those basics well. If we do that and have ten good starts and ten good pitstops and ten good qualifying sessions between now and the end of the year, that should be enough to get the job done. But Formula One is anything but predictable.
So far we’ve managed to win the most races of any team this year and we’re determined to build on that over the remaining five races. The effort going on in the factory – and let’s not forget we are a smaller team that our competitors – has been heroic. The hours and dedication that have gone in… it’s not by accident that we have got ourselves here; it’s through hard work and dedication of all of the team to get ourselves to the point of fighting iconic teams like Ferrari and McLaren.
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