Red Bull pushing to bring next upgrades to France

Sam Cooper
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc races Red Bull's Max Verstappen at the Austrian Grand Prix. Spielberg, July 2022.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc races Red Bull's Max Verstappen at the Austrian Grand Prix. Spielberg, July 2022.

Having lost the last two grands prix, Red Bull are hoping to bring an update to the car at the French Grand Prix.

Such has been Red Bull’s dominance of the season so far, their consecutive defeats in Austria and Silverstone represents their biggest gap without winning a race.

They still lead both Championships but with Ferrari starting to show a similar level of pace as they did at the start of the season, there is work to do for the team if they want to stay on top.

In that regard, they are looking to bring updates to the RB18 to make it more competitive than it has been in recent weeks.

Auto Motor und Sport reports that an upgrade package is in the works and that the team is hoping to launch it at Paul Ricard.

Honda F1 boss Masashi Yamamoto, who also works as a consultant for Red Bull said that while the Ferrari looked strong, he believes the Red Pull power unit is more reliable.

“I think [Charles] Leclerc was just faster. However, Max [Verstappen] did a great job holding on to second place and setting the fastest race lap,” he said, as reported by GPFans.com.

“Ferrari was indeed very strong, but if you look at the blown engine of Carlos Sainz, I think HRC (Honda Racing Corporation) and Red Bull Powertrains is still better if we look at the overall performance and reliability.”

The Honda boss also believes the French track will favour Red Bull but has warned that might not be the case in Hungary.

“I think France is more in Red Bull’s favour, so we should go bang there,” he hopes.

“In Hungary, on the other hand, I have a feeling that Ferrari will win because they have more traction at low and medium speeds. But I think Red Bull will do something to counter that. I want to finish the two races before the summer break well.”

Yamamoto was critical of Sergio Perez after the Mexican was all but eliminated from the race in Austria following an opening-lap collision with George Russell.

“Turn four has already been a nasty corner for us in recent years. I’m sure you lose if you choose the outside there,” he said

“He [Perez] could have waited another lap and had a good chance in turn three to still strike. To be honest, he ruined it himself.”

 

Decision time looming at Red Bull

With Max Verstappen holding a 57-point advantage over Sergio Perez, it's likely that Red Bull will throw their weight behind the reigning champion soon.