Horner praises ‘phenomenal’ turnaround by Red Bull at the end of ‘stressful’ Imola GP.
It was a remarkable turnaround by the team - and testament to the hard work that went on in the simulator back in Milton Keynes on Friday night.
19 May 2024
Formula One - Official Site

While Horner was quick to pay tribute to both the simulator drivers and the wider team, he reserved special praise for the race winner. “When you look at the turnaround we had from Friday into Saturday to get the pole and to get the victory again today, it’s been a phenomenal performance and turnaround by the team but also Max has been incredible this weekend, and again he’s had to work very hard for the pole and the victory.”

“I think he’s had a very busy weekend because he’s also competed in the 24 hours of Nurburgring [sim race] as well as being in the car, so he’s won two races today, one in a BMW M3 and one in a Formula 1 car. Max this weekend, you heard what it meant to him, the pole position yesterday he had to dig very deep and the performance today was a masterclass.”

‘Phenomenal turnaround’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...8BVpWoAgKIK80Q


How Red Bull went from ‘nowhere’ to win: Imola turnaround explained
Christian Horner has shed light on how Red Bull turned things around following a difficult Friday at Imola.
20 May 2024
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Christian Horner says a “big dive” on Friday evening ultimately paved the way for Red Bull’s impressive turnaround at the F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Red Bull experienced their most difficult Friday of the season at Imola, with both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez struggling with the balance of their RB20 cars and ending the day off the pace in both practice sessions.

Asked what was the key to Red Bull’s turnaround, Horner replied: “Sebastien Buemi. We did a lot of work on set-up on Friday into Saturday to move the balance and get the balance into a much better window. “As I say, for 60 percent of the race we were anywhere between six and eight seconds clear of the rest. It was just the second half of the stint on the hard tyre, we started to give away performance.”

Horner went on to explain: “It was a big dive and that’s why you must never underestimate the broader team in the factory, the simulator drivers. Credit where credit is due, the essence of team is being able to respond when things aren’t going well and we managed to turn it around. If you expected this result on Friday, all of the analysis would have said no way but we managed to turn it around and win the race.”

“Sebastien Buemi”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/104891...ound-explained


Revealed: How Sebastien Buemi helped inspire Red Bull’s strong turnaround at Imola
19 May 2024 7:26 PM
Henry Valantine
PlanetF1.com

When asked for what it was that helped Red Bull turn their weekend around in Imola, Horner told media including PlanetF1.com with a smile: “Sebastien Buemi. We did a lot of work on set up over Friday night into Saturday, and managed to move the balance and get the car into a much better window.” Having driven for Toro Rosso for three seasons, Buemi’s career has flourished in other series – winning the Formula E title as well as four World Endurance Championships with Toyota, taking top honours at Le Mans four times on the way.

He has remained with Red Bull as a reserve and simulator driver along the way, and was on hand back at base to help run setup changes with the team as they looked for ways forward after two troublesome Friday practice sessions. Verstappen in particular then turned his fortunes around to place his car on pole position and led comfortably for most of the race, before Lando Norris closed right back up in the final stages and finished under a second behind come the chequered flag.

‘Sebastien Buemi’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/christ...bull-imola-win


Red Bull was on the ropes at Imola but its F1 reign isn't over... yet
May 20th 2024
Author: Mark Hughes
Motor Sport Magazine

Max Verstappen’s Imola victory was not one of those comfortable nailed-on ones we’ve seen so often in the last few years. It was a struggle. It required a major change between Friday and Saturday. It required Verstappen to be at his tenacious best in the late stages of the race to hold off the flying McLaren of Lando Norris.

Red Bull was at its ropiest this weekend and even under those circumstances against heavily updated cars from Ferrari and McLaren, it could rely on Verstappen to overcome the shortfall. Things the Red Bull doesn’t like: a front-limited circuit (Imola, Melbourne). A circuit demanding bigger ride heights (Imola, Singapore).

That put the RB20 out of its comfort zone coming into the weekend and maybe that pre-knowledge played its part in the team arriving here with a set-up based around a big rear wing. It was paranoid about the tyre graining which can so easily trip you up here.

‘On the ropes’;

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/a...?nowprocket=1#


‘Broken’ Max Verstappen left with back pain from bumpy Imola F1 track
“My back, everything is hurting..."
19 May 2024
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Max Verstappen says Imola’s bumpy surface left him feeling “broken” following his victory at the F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. While the battle with Norris was intense, Verstappen said the biggest issue he faced was the track itself. “I'm just broken from the bumps, to be honest,” Verstappen explained.

“My back, everything is hurting. It's not so much from the physical side of things, but just it was so bumpy out there. Already after like 20 laps, I could really feel my back. So I'm just looking forward to laying in bed. Maybe take some painkillers. And a massage, I don't know…”

Asked if he had a specific problem in the final stint, Verstappen replied: “I just couldn't really get the tyres to work. “It just felt like they were not operating in the right temperature window. And that just got worse and worse. So the last 15 laps for me was really like driving on ice. They were not responding anymore. So that's something that we have to analyse.”

‘Everything is hurting’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/104883...imola-f1-track


Verstappen: ‘The last few laps I was pushing flat out… I could see Lando closing in’
18:50 Sun, 19 May 2024.
Formula One - Official Site (Video)

Max Verstappen reflects on a hard-fought victory at Imola, when he finished less than a second ahead of Lando Norris.

‘Hard-fought victory’;

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/ve...96775311948313


Helmut Marko hints at ‘not helpful’ Lando Norris messages as ‘deciding factor’ in Imola win
20 May 2024 9:45 AM
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

What he thinks could’ve played a role was Norris’ race engineer’s messages to the Briton. Having already told his race engineer Joseph that he was “pushing” when informed about Charles Leclerc’s pace, Joseph was back on the radio during the Briton’s late-race tussle with Verstappen.

“Lando, happy to push Turn 9 a little bit more,” he said. Norris replied: “I’m pushing as much as I can mate. Thank you.” Marko reckons those messages would’ve been more annoying than inspiring.

“It was an interesting radio message from his engineer. He was driving at the absolute limit and he said he should increase his speed,” he said. “I think that really annoyed him. It certainly wasn’t helpful when you were concentrating in a situation like that.”

‘More annoying than inspiring’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/helmut...g-factor-imola


Verstappen "almost ended in the grandstands" amid Imola F1 hard tyre struggles
18:16 Sun, 19 May 2024.
Filip Cleeren
Motorsport.com

Verstappen explained that he couldn't keep the hard compound in the right operating window, which led to a lack of grip that he says nearly saw him crash at Turn 7's Tosa hairpin. "On the mediums it was very good," Verstappen said after clinching his fifth grand prix win of the season.

"But then as soon as I swapped to the hard tyres, maybe not the first five to 10 laps but after that, I was like: 'I'm not sure I can bring this to the end'. The tyres just fell out of the operating window and it was just like driving on ice, really snappy.”

"At Turn 7 I almost ended up in the grandstands, for my feeling, at some point. So, it was just very difficult, really weird lines that I had to take." In previous events, Verstappen would have simply had the advantage to cruise to the finish anyway, but in the vastly upgraded McLaren MCL38, Norris managed to reel the triple world champion back in, hounding him to the line over the last 10 laps.

‘Turn 7’;

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/v...gles/10613032/