Horner exposes Verstappen ‘needs’ demand; Red Bull reveals how RB22 became race winner – round-up
Christian Horner revealed all on a conversation with Max Verstappen's management which shaped development direction.
It’s race week for the United States Grand Prix in Austin, and there is already plenty to whet the appetite as Red Bull is very much among the headlines.
Elsewhere, Haas has revealed a new livery for the weekend, Ferrari has changed its race suits, but we’re delving into on-track news this time around as we prepare for the start of another triple-header.
How Red Bull RB22 became a winner
Red Bull technical director, Pierre Waché, spoke to PlanetF1.com about the work that has happened behind the scenes to take the RB22 from around 1.5 seconds off the pace at the beginning of the year, into a back-to-back race winner.
As is typical in Formula 1, however, he is still not fully satisfied with how things are going.
He spoke to our own Thomas Maher for an extensive conversation on a wide range of subjects.
Read more: Exclusive: Pierre Waché reveals how Red Bull turned the RB22 into a race winner
Horner: Red Bull cars tailored around Max Verstappen needs
Christian Horner has been speaking about how the second seat at Red Bull has been troublesome for the team in recent years, and that in part has come about from tuning the car to Max Verstappen’s liking.
So much so, in fact, that the other driver simply cannot cope with the amount of front end Verstappen requires to extract the most from the car.
With Verstappen as the team’s “prime asset”, Horner recalled that, during 2022: “I remember sitting down with Max’s management around Azerbaijan that year, and them saying, ‘Look, you’ve developed this car around Checo [Perez]. You need to be following what Max needs.'”
From then on, with the team going closer to Verstappen’s requirements, the driver in the second seat has yet to mount too much of a challenge otherwise.
Read more: Horner claims Max Verstappen ‘needs’ conversation impacting Red Bull still
McLaren to sell iconic pieces of history
McLaren is taking the step of selling some of its race-winning and title-winning machinery, with Zak Brown highlighting that “these cars were built to be driven and raced.”
Two 1991 MP4-6 chassis have been made available, as has a 2012 MP4-27, tested by Lewis Hamilton and raced by Jenson Button.
The 2021 MCL35M is also set to go under the hammer, kitted out in its Gulf livery as seen at the Monaco GP that year, and a 2023 MCL37.
Anyone have a spare few million laying around?
Read more: McLaren to sell F1 cars driven by Senna, Hamilton and Norris
More details on Max Verstappen’s new engineer
GianPiero Lambiase and Max Verstappen will be parting ways when ‘GP’ heads to McLaren by 2028, and longtime Red Bull engineer Tom Hart is set to step up.
He’ll be on Verstappen’s communications in Austin this weekend, along with two further races before the end of the season.
It has been a long road for him to get to this point, in what will be an
Read more: Who is Tom Hart? Max Verstappen’s next race engineer after Lambiase departs
Fernando Alonso raises Honda engine concern
Fernando Alonso felt something was not performing as it should have done in the Honda power unit in Singapore, having struggled throughout the race.
He thought he competed “the hard way” last time out, believing there were “a lot of problems” to navigate in terms of engine power.
Read more: Alonso calls for investigation into new Honda engine concern
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