F1 News
Horner knows what saved Red Bull's '24: "Verstappen's inspiring leadership"
The 2024 F1 season was no walk in the park for Red Bull Racing. What started as yet another dominant showing by the Austrian team quickly unravelled into a hard and long fought season which saw Max Verstappen emerge as world champion at the very end due to his "tenacious driving" and work behind the scenes with the engineers in the team.
During an interview with Autosport, Red Bull Chief, Christian Horner has been very open with how significant was Verstappen to Red Bull Racing's season turn around by the end of 2024. Speaking on the mid season's hardships, when McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes had appeared to have a leg up on the Milton Keynes based team, the Briton begins:
Verstappen became key element for Red Bull
“It almost felt like something changed dramatically. Suddenly three other teams became competitive, and we suddenly started to experience some issues that became very limiting. Then it was a question of ‘and then your tools don't correlate with what's going on on track’. And that's when the driver really becomes a key element,” highlighting the importance of the Dutch world champion amidst the struggles of the team as it tried to find performance.
"Max never panicked. Even on the tough days, he spent the long hours with the engineers really rolling his sleeves up and getting stuck in. Working behind the scenes on the simulator, spending the time with vehicle dynamicists and aerodynamicists just talking through ‘OK, this is where you need to focus, this is where the key issue is with this one’, based on what he's feeling," said the Briton shedding light about the work put in by Verstappen to try and help the team turn their season around.
What helped Red Bull save 2024 season? "Verstappen's inspiring leadership"
On what the key factors that guaranteed Red Bull Racing being able to get their season back on track, Horner is clear: "Tenacious driving, strategy, and teamwork”.
But, how significant was Verstappen to the Austrian team's comeback? The British team boss answers: “When your tools don't tie in with the circuit, the best sense of that you've got is the driver. And that's where Max was hugely impressive this year – the leadership that he inspired from within the car for the direction that we needed to take to address some of the issues,” concluded Horner.
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