‘We have to turn the situation around very quickly’ – Christian Horner admits Red Bull ‘under pressure’ as he explains ‘vicious circle’ team are in

“I think this circuit has exposed deficiencies that we have in the car versus last year, and I think that we have a very clear issue which has been highlighted this weekend and we know we have to get on top of and address [that], otherwise we put ourselves under massive pressure.”

Horner explained further: “I think on other [tracks], running more downforce perhaps hides some of the balance issues that we have, and you can see that we’ve got a disconnection in balance that just isn’t working.

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“And as soon as you end up in that situation, you end up [where] you’re harder on tyres, you end up compensating the balance around – to cure one problem you create another, so you just end up in a vicious circle.”

Despite their strong performances at the start of the campaign – with Verstappen having won the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix with a 22-second lead – Horner believes that the problem existed from an early stage.

“I think it’s been there for some time,” the Team Principal said. “I think actually, really going through the data, there [were] issues there at the beginning of the year in the characteristics. I think others have obviously made a step, and as we’ve pushed the package harder it’s exposed the issue.

“So even if you go back in the data, there were a few races last year where [it was there]. I think it’s a characteristic we have to address, and there’s full focus at the factory in Milton Keynes.”