Red Bull In Doubt Over Race On Sunday Besides Achieving Pole Position
F1Sunday, 26 November 2023 at 08:18
Updated at Sunday, 26 November 2023 at 08:19
The Red Bull Racing team has been unable to finish long-run simulations during Free Practices in Abu Dhabi, and Christian Horner admits it creates uncertainty in strategy for Sunday.
Coming from the Free Practice Session 3 into the Qualification, Red Bull seemed to be on a back foot as Max Verstappen only achieved P6 and Sergio Perez P11 in the last Free Practice session.
However, the two Red Bull cars seemed completely different in the Qualification and dominated the session from the beginning.
In the end, Verstappen snatched the pole position with his first run in Q3. Perez messed up his final lap, which was only fast enough for P5, but then it got deleted for track limits impeding, and he ended up in P9.
Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner explained the team experimented with different setups during free practices. He told the media:
"Friday night we changed some things and the car didn't respond very well to that in FP3. That's why we went back to Friday's set-up.
The three-time World Champion complained about bouncing of his car during practices, but that problem seemed to have been eliminated going into qualification.
"The mechanics deserve a compliment for their work, and Max delivered again. We got back into a situation where Max was happy and the car was doing well. The fast lap times followed."
On the other hand, the whole F1 grid seemed very close in terms of pace this last weekend at Yas Marina Circuit, and Horner admitted, there are 'question marks for the race' despite the great qualifying result.
"There are some question marks for the race, because we have not been able to finish a long run. Despite this, it's nice that Max starts from pole position on this track for the fourth time in a row."
Red Bull team principal told Verstappen on the team radio after the qualifying session the Dutchman won him 500€ (547$) in a bet with Helmut Marko about whether or not he would achieve pole. Horner, therefore, joked it's the best result for him.
"This is the best result of the season for me. I managed to steal Helmut's money, which you can compare to getting blood out of a stone."
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