Oracle Red Bull Racing Team Principal and CEO Christian Horner says that it was a great team performance in Bahrain on Saturday as the Milton Keynes-based outfit came away from the opening race of the season with a 1-2 finish.
“Today was a great performance by Max and Checo. To come out the race with a one-two finish was a huge achievement as a Team and both drivers brought a really strong performance and gave it everything. They both had the perfect start to a very dominant race; Max drove a strong race from start to finish and Checo really came through the field, made a couple of good passes and drove a great race. We have to thank everyone back in Milton Keynes this winter who have worked so hard and come up with another great car. This win is testimony to that hard work that goes on behind the scenes. So it was a great Team performance once again and we are incredibly pleased to achieve maximum points today. The Team have done a wonderful job with the car and they haven’t rested on their laurels. They’ve pushed hard and it has paid off today with a fantastic result.”
Reigning Formula One world champion Max Verstappen started the race from pole position and had a flawless 57 lap race, taking home 26 points and speaking following the action he said:
It was a special one today. These kind of days don’t happen that often where the car feels spot on, including the balance and feeling of the car and everything went really well. The start was good and then we also looked after the car really well, so it was an enjoyable race for me. We managed to find a good rhythm and pace on this track and the wind strength and direction helped me extract a bit more from the car. This is one of our strongest circuits and looking to Jeddah we know that the track there is very different, with a lot of high speed corners and less degradation. I am hoping we can bring the same performance to next week: it’s going to be a challenge but I am looking forward to it. We have to thank everyone at the factory who has contributed to a great start of the year. It is always a big challenge to build a new car and follow up such an unbelievable season, but I’m excited to kick things off this season with a win.
Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez put on a great show for the team as he came from 5th to finish second and in doing so earned maximum points for Red Bull.
It was a really strong race from the Team, it’s a great start to the season, you can’t get better than a one-two to start a year which looks like it’ll be a really tight battle. I overtook Carlos at the start and from there we were able to chip away at things. There were a few issues that we need to iron out but it is just important to keep the momentum with us now. From my side it is good to now have a full race distance behind us because there will be a lot of learning to do on how we manage tyres, how we push and then we can go from there. We had a good pace, but I think it is going to be track dependent. I just want to keep improving because the season is long.”