Christian Horner ‘understands’ Max Verstappen fury with Red Bull after retirement at Australian Grand Prix

The world champion retired again at Melbourne after doing the same in Bahrain last month

Dan Austin
Sunday 10 April 2022 10:08 BST
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<p>Christian Horner and his Red Bull team were left ruing reliability once again in Australia. </p>

Christian Horner and his Red Bull team were left ruing reliability once again in Australia.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says he understands Max Verstappen’s frustration after the Dutchman was forced to retire from an F1 grand prix due to a mechanical failure for the second time in three races at the beginning of the 2022 season.

Verstappen was running a consistent second at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday morning befort stopping abruptly after the pit straight when he began to smell fluid leaking from his RB18. The Dutchman pulled over at the side of the road and was told to turn off the engine by race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, before a marshal took a fire extinguisher to his stricken RB18.

The loss of points combined with another victory for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc means Verstappen has been cut adrift from the top of the championship by 46 points, sitting sixth in the standings behind rival Lewis Hamilton in fifth.

He previously retired late on at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix in March when he suffered an engine failure, and called the Red Bull team’s lack of reliability “unacceptable” in his media interview after the race in Melbourne.

And Horner said he empathises with the the Ducthman’s feelings.

“It’s totally understandable, his frustration,” Horner told Sky Sports F1. “That was a really disappointing result. We don’t know what the issue is yet but I don’t think it’s engine related, it seems fuel related.

“We can’t accept DNFs, we need to understand the issue and get on top of it. Max hadn’t been happy all weekend with getting the car in the right window, and that’s usually the sign you haven’t got the right balance. We have things in the pipeline I think will help, but we need to put this behind us and move on.”

Despite challenging Leclerc for the lead at the re-start after one of the two safety car periods, Verstappen simply couldn’t match the Ferrari’s pace while he was still in the race, and Horner says a win was never feasible at Albert Park.

“We didn’t have the pace to race Ferrari today, but it’s still frustrating not to bag those points,” Horner added.

“We just didn’t have the speed to beat Charles. The Ferrari was untocuhable and it came alive for them today. I’d rather fix a fast car then try and make a slow one fast.”

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