Red Bull Baffled by ‘Insane’ Ferrari Power

The British Grand Prix provided to be one of the most epic races of the season thus far. With two safety car periods in quick succession, it made for an exciting final ten laps. But Red Bull were the losers, with neither of their cars able to overtake Ferrari or Mercedes.

Red Bull boss, Christian Horner admitted after the race that they were caught out by the ‘insane’ power advantage that the Ferrari cars had over them. “We were just hugely exposed, in both defence and attack”, Horner said.

“You could see at the restart with Kimi, it was a bit like Mexico 2015 the amount of additional power. “And at the second restart he had a moment at Stowe yet was still all over Max into Turns 2 and 3”, he added, referring to the last pass Raikkonen made on the Dutchman.

Horner also explained how the problem actually manifested itself in relation to the Ferrari cars. “The problem with Silverstone now is that it’s such a wide open throttle circuit, you’re talking 82% in qualifying full throttle”, Horner stated.

“So corners like Copse, Becketts, Stowe – they’re not quite the challenge they were in these cars, because everybody is flat through Copse now.”

“That’s when the power really kicks in. And we see it time and time again – Turn 3 at Barcelona, Turn 3 in Sochi, Turn 7 in Austria – it’s a known issue.”

“If you look at the rear wings on the cars, we’re running Spa levels of downforce [at Silverstone] and everybody else is running that bit more.”

“In qualifying I think every single corner we were quicker than Sebastian, but we just hose time down the straights.”

This revelation by the Brit are something for the Austrian team to ponder over. They are traditionally a chassis-focusing car, so it may as well be time to look at parts like rear wings, which according to the team boss, is a cause for concern.