Christian Horner, Red Bull’s team principal, expressed his team’s confusion over their performance drop from Q2 to Q3 during the Italian Grand Prix qualifying session at Monza. Despite impressive Q2 times—Max Verstappen clocked 1:19.662 and Sergio Perez posted 1:20.216—both drivers struggled in Q3. With fresh tires, Verstappen and Perez lapsed by four and two-tenths of a second respectively, ending up in seventh and eighth positions.
Verstappen was visibly perplexed after the session, remarking, “Going four-tenths slower than we did in Q2 is just not normal.” Horner echoed this bewilderment, explaining to Sky Sports F1, “We simply don’t understand why we could achieve a 1m19.6s on used tires but couldn’t improve on two sets of new tires, ending up at 1m20.0s.”
Horner noted that the balance of the car seemed off for Verstappen, indicating a fundamental issue that the team has yet to identify. “The balance just isn’t there for Max,” he said. “We need to understand why the car performed better on older tires compared to new ones.”
He also observed that while Q2 performance was somewhat acceptable, Q3 exposed significant discrepancies. “The handling characteristics Max mentioned were present, but Q3 revealed something amiss. Other teams improved on new tires, but we were far behind.”
Verstappen’s last qualifying pole in dry conditions was at the Austrian Grand Prix, a notable drop from his seven consecutive poles earlier in the season. Additionally, Verstappen has not secured a win in the last five races, grappling with ongoing balance issues. This led him to test an older spec floor at the Dutch GP, which did not alleviate the problems and resulted in a 22-second defeat to Lando Norris.
Horner highlighted the urgent need for solutions, stating, “We tried an older specification last weekend to address the issues but encountered the same handling problems. This has provided us with valuable data, but we have a lot to analyze and address quickly.”
He pointed out that McLaren has significantly advanced in recent races, putting Red Bull behind Ferrari and Mercedes. “There’s clearly something not working with the car,” Horner concluded. “We need to understand the problem, find an engineering solution, and implement it effectively.”
