Red Bull says it is refusing to take any comfort from Ferrari’s persistent reliability problems as the Formula 1 title battle swings past the halfway point in the season.
Ferrari hit the ground running during the early phase of the season as it won two of the opening three races, but strategy errors and mechanical issues since then have left it playing catch up to Red Bull in the standings.
Charles Leclerc lost two potential victories in Barcelona and Baku after suffering engine failures, while Carlos Sainz retired at the Austrian Grand Prix when his power unit let go and caught fire.
While Leclerc ended a three-month wait for a race win and reignited his title hopes at the Red Bull Ring, he was left nursing his car to the chequered flag due to a throttle problem that allowed Max Verstappen to close in late on.
The multitude of problems means question marks remain over Ferrari’s reliability, but despite the Italian outfit’s mechanical woes, Red Bull doesn’t see this as a reason to sit back and rely on its rivals poor finishing rate.
“Not really. We are not too focused on them,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner when asked if Ferrari’s main weakness gave his team some comfort, as quoted by Motorsport.com.
“We can’t control or contribute to that in any way. I think that we’ve got to focus on ourselves and just getting the best out of our own package.
“They had a very strong car [in Austria], and they could have could have well finished first and second.”
Red Bull has sustained a strong grip in both title races since its one-two finish at the Spanish Grand Prix, with Verstappen currently holding a 38-point lead over Leclerc, while it is 56 points clear of Ferrari.
But Horner believes the title fight remains wide open following Ferrari’s obvious pace advantage in Austria, seeing no reason to get complacent with plenty of points still up for grabs.
“Absolutely,” Horner said. “We are just at the halfway point of the championship and things swing around quite a lot.
“There is still an awfully long way to go. I would say Austria was sort of damage limitation, as we managed to get the pole, get the sprint victory and see the second place [in the race]. I think Max has only lost five points to the Charles in the drivers’ championship and obviously damage has been relatively contained in the constructors’.”
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