Christian Horner reveals Red Bull avoided big update issue that blighted rivals

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner gave positive initial feedback from the team’s upgrades, after bringing changes to the Hungarian Grand Prix, with the upgrades correlating as expected – which has not always been the case throughout the grid this year.

Red Bull had five new upgrades listed as part of their Hungarian Grand Prix changes, including a new engine cover on Max Verstappen ‘s car with re-sculpted sidepods, along with both he and Sergio Perez having changes to the front wing, front corner, rear corner and updated Halo fairings to try and add performance to the RB20.

Christian Horner: Red Bull upgrade correlation ‘great to see’ with Hungary changes

While Horner has stressed Red Bull are in ‘diminishing returns’ territory on multiple occasions this season as the team seemingly reach the top of the development curve in Formula 1, that has not stopped them from looking to improve their current package.

With their rivals having closed in on their dominance in recent races, Red Bull brought multiple parts to the Hungarian Grand Prix in the hope of putting themselves firmly back at the front of the field on performance.

As the new parts took effect, the Red Bull team principal offered positive feedback on what he saw following the first two hours of Friday practice.

While some of Red Bull’s rivals have struggled to see upgrades translate into on-track performance so far this season, with correlation issues affecting multiple teams as updates have not quite worked as anticipated, Horner said this was not the case as their latest package arrived at the Hungaroring.

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“We’re seeing correlation between our tools and the track, which is great to see,” Horner told Sky F1 after FP2.

“The aero guys seem reasonably content with the numbers that they’re seeing, so it’s now about tuning that and getting the most out of it for tomorrow.

“So it’s certainly an encouraging Friday, but there are so many differences between power modes, fuel levels, and even management on the long run of who’s managing and how they’re managing their tyres.

“I thought the race runs went pretty well. I mean, Max was perhaps doing a bit more tyre management than Checo, so you get a varying answer from that.

“It’s all going to be about tyres this race and making sure you’ve got a setup that perhaps isn’t the ultimate over a single lap, which is what we’ve seen over the last couple of years, but gives you that longevity – that’s what’s going to be crucial.”

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