Christian Horner: Vettel’s bad luck will eventually stop
Happy boss this weekend, Christian Horner sees Daniel Ricciardo once again beat the Mercedes. Horner also commented on Vettel's bad luck and remains confident for the future, predicting that the German's misfortune will disappear.
Christian Horner believes that Vettel’s bad luck has influenced his results since the beginning of the year, while Daniel Ricciardo is getting the better of the German.
Sebastian Vettel is the youngest four-time world champion, however, the 2014 season is chaotic, notably because of the introduction of the turbocharged V6 engine. This has not helped Red Bull’s situation, as in the first half of the season they were dominated by Mercedes, despite two victories by Daniel Ricciardo – in Canada and Hungary.
During the Hungarian GP, Sebastian Vettel’s qualifying was excellent, allowing him to start alongside Nico Rosberg on the front row. In the race, the German was 7th after the first safety car intervention following the accidents of Marcus Ericsson and Romain Grosjean. A mistake would then cost him dearly when he lost control of his Red Bull in the last corner as Lewis Hamilton was threatening.
The results of the Red Bull drivers tandem are almost the opposite, with Daniel Ricciardo dominating Sebastian Vettel by 3 places and having a 43-point lead in favor of the Australian. However, Christian Horner has not lost hope of seeing the German at his best.
In an interview with Sky Sports, he reflects on the German driver’s race weekend: « He deserves a well-earned break, he needs to take some time off, and he will come back strong. However, this weekend was very good for him. On Friday, he was fast and on Saturday, he was fantastic in qualifying, but he was unlucky in the race. Luck wasn’t on his side during this first half of the season, but everything can change very quickly. The bad luck was there for Vettel except when he hit the pit wall where there was very little damage. During the first safety car, he was unlucky, but he was lucky not to end up in the wall. »
During the 9th lap, Marcus Ericsson was a victim of a run-off on the drenched Hungarian track, at which point Vettel and Bottas were battling for second place. Christian Horner reflects on his confrontation with Valtteri Bottas and his race finish: « We stuck with this tire choice for the end of the race, and he did an excellent job keeping Valtteri Bottas’ Williams at bay, which was about 3 seconds per lap faster than him. In the last 5 laps, he drove the Red Bull as best he could. »
