Horner sends stark 'momentum' warning after Verstappen's 'timely title-bid win'

21:48, 21 May

Updated: 21:51, 21 May

byNorberto Mujica

Christian Horner has assessed his driver Max Verstappen's win at Imola last Sunday as 'timely' in terms of the championship race, and believes Red Bull Racing are steadily building momentum.

Where everyone on Friday believed McLaren would win by a landslide again in Imola, it was Verstappen who took the chequeared flag. How did the team turn it around? Horner answered that very question to media like GPblog after the race.

"We bought some subtle new parts here and I think that Friday we sort of understood what they were doing and were able to fine tune the setup around them going into Saturday."

"Then the car, really, after Max jumped out of it in P3 (Free Practice 3, ed.) he was much much happier and that carried through into qualy and then obviously again into the race today."

"Going into the race today we didn't know what to expect tyre deg wise because McLaren obviously looked so good on Friday we generally thought it was gonna be very tough to beat them today, so it was very reassuring that actually our deg was better than theirs today."

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On a hot day, where tyre degradation was expected to play a role, it was Red Bull who surprisingly had the upper-hand on McLaren. How important was the Imola win for the Austrian outfit?

"I think it's an important win for the team at this stage of the championship. It feels like we're building a little bit of momentum behind the scenes. At the factory, everybody behind the scenes is working incredibly hard."

"It's a timely win championship-wise. It keeps the pressure on and keeps us in touch."

Does this mean Red Bull have finally gotten on top of the correlation issues they were facing?

"I think we're starting to understand, and the upgrades were mainly focused on characteristics rather than ultimate downforce and I think we've managed to address hopefully subtly some of the characteristics, which is encouraging for the upcoming races."

It is worthy of note that the RB21 has notoriously struggled in low speed corners and tracks where high traction is the norm. In Imola however, the RB21's ride over the kerbs was said to be better, something which may help the Austrian team's efforts to get a solid result in Monaco.

However, in the words of Verstappen himself, it will not be easy.