Despite Charles Leclerc taking pole position in the last four races, the Monegasque hasn’t been able to win a race since Australia, the third round of the season.
Two engine failures (in Spain and Azerbaijan) and a series of strategic errors at the Monaco GP allowed Max Verstappen, his main rival for the title, to open a 34-point lead over him in the drivers’ standings.
Ferrari needs quick answers to its recent reliability issues if it doesn’t want Red Bull to slide away in the fight for the titles, as not only has Leclerc suffered mechanical problems, but Carlos Sainz also retired in Baku with a hydraulic problem.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says his team cannot take their foot off the gas and simply believe that their rival will continue to make mistakes or struggle.
“I think they have a very fast car, especially on Saturdays,” he explained, when asked by Motorsport.com what he thought of Ferrari ‘s title chances.
“I think on Sundays, we’ve been evenly matched in almost every race of the season. And I think that was the case again in Baku, at least from what we could see in the first few laps!”
“They will work out their issues, I have no doubts about that. But inevitably I guess it will mean they will get penalties later on towards the end of the year.”
“Of course, there is still a long way to go in this championship. We have seen big changes in the standings in the last four or five races, and that shows how quickly things can change this year.”
While Leclerc ‘s engine failure in Baku made Red Bull ‘s one-two a fairly easy task, Horner believes the RB18’s pace would have been enough to win even without the Monegasque driver’s problem.
“It’s a shame in many ways that the race didn’t go as expected, because I think we had a good car,” he said.
“I think we would have gotten the win against Charles as well because of the strategy we chose. But we will never know that.”
“The important thing is that we capitalized on their misfortunes and scored very good points, obviously the championships look quite promising at the moment. But we are also aware that this can change very quickly,” Christian Horner concluded.
