Horner admits Verstappen is right: 'Red Bull problems were there then'

Verstappen gets vindication from Horner

"I think it's been there for some time," Horner admitted to GPblog and other media. "If I really look at the data, I think there were problems at the beginning of the year. Others have obviously made a step. As we've pushed the package harder, it's exposed the issue."

In fact, according to the Red Bull team boss, the problems started much earlier. "So even if you go back in the data, there was a few races last year where we started to see this in Austin and so on. It's a characteristic that we know we have to address and it's full focus in the factory at Milton Keynes," he continued.

Horner acknowledges: 'Problems Red Bull were there back then'

Verstappen pointed out the problems to his team earlier in the year, and Horner admits this. "If you dig into it, I think there were some of these issues early in the year even when we were winning races by 20 seconds," continued the 50-year-old Briton, who sees where the biggest problem is for Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

"I think 100% it’s balance. We haven't got a connection between front and rear," Horner said. "We can see that. Our wind tunnel doesn't say that. But the track says that. So it's getting on top of that because obviously when you have that, it means you can't trust your tools. So then you have to go back to track data and previous experience."

This article has been created in collaboration with Matt Gretton