Red Bull bosses are looking to move on from what Christian Horner described as a “brutally frustrating” double retirement at the Bahrain GP, the team’s first since Korea in 2010.
Their two drivers, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, saw their races end almost simultaneously as the Dutchman suffered lasting gearbox damage after light contact with Lewis Hamilton as he tried to pass the Mercedes at the start of Lap 2.
Moments later, Ricciardo was forced to pull over to the side of the track after his RB14 shut down with an electrical problem, resulting in the Australian taking the second of his permitted batteries for the entire year this weekend in China.
“A brutally frustrating race for us because we had again another very competitive race car,” Horner claimed.
“Daniel commented that even in the two laps that he was able to do, he was able to close pretty comfortably on Kimi.
“And Max the feeling he was getting from the car, the fact that he was on the same tire he used to line up and pass Lewis, showed that the potential was really there.”
On the Verstappen/ Hamilton incident, the Red Bull F1 chief didn’t apportion blame and even defended the Mercedes driver calling his man a “d***head” in the cool down room before the podium, claiming it was adrenaline-fuelled.
“It was hard racing between two very competitive drivers. It is just unfortunate that there was some contact,” he stated.
“It robbed the fans ultimately of a great race because I think, I genuinely do believe that the last couple of races we have had a car capable of beating the Ferrari.
“We don’t have the points to show for it. Thankfully the next race is only one week away.”
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Motorsport advisor Helmut Marko focused his disappointment on Renault though, for costing Ricciardo a chance to challenge the Ferraris and Valtteri Bottas in front.
“The problem of Ricciardo is it is not the first time it’s happened,” the Red Bull advisor told Autosport. “What can you do when a technical issue just stops you completely?
“First we have to sort out our qualifying, but we need a fast and reliable engine,” the Austrian added.
