Red Bull's upgrades working enough to mitigate core weakness, Horner notes

17:17, 18 May

byNorberto Mujica

Max Verstappen won the race at Imola, not by chance, but by merit sees Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner, who signals McLaren that Red Bull have overcome core weakness in the RB21.

Neither McLaren driver had answers for Verstappen's pace, as Red Bull's upgrades did the trick in Italy. Absolutely [a win on merits], great performance by Max, the whole team. The car was fast, the degradation was very good," said Horner in conversation with Viaplay.

"His move at the first corner, wow! That was very decisive. The pit stops were good. The team worked so hard, they worked through the night on Yuki's (Tsunoda, Verstappen's teammate, ed.) car. Great performance by Max and the whole team today."

Confident Horner sees Red Bull's upgrades finally working

In the latter stages of the race Andrea Kimi Antonelli triggered a Safety Car which bunched up the field putting the race win at risk, at least on paper, sin Horner was confident they could bag the Grand Prix win.

"Yeah, we were good. We had the pace and Max, we found a setup for him this weekend that really allowed him to find real confidence in the car and you could see he was completely in control."

Red Bull's development program is absolutely on point, Horner sees. "Absolutely, we brought some new parts here and that was really important. So, great team effort today, very proud of the whole team."