Horner dabbles in conspiracy 'sceptic' thinking over Red Bull collapse

Christian Horner appears to have been dabbling in some conspiratorial thinking when coming up with possible reasons for his team's sudden lack of race-winning pace, admitting that he was being 'pressured' to stop his star driver winning races so easily.

2024 looked like going the same way as the previous season when Max Verstappen won four of the first five races, but other teams have caught and overtaken them as the season has progressed – with no Red Bull wins in the last eight rounds.

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However, despite that positive start, the pair went on to suffer a shock decline in performance, opening the door for McLaren to emerge as a realistic championship contender.

Horner shifts blame

Spearheaded by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, the British outfit finally overhauled their rivals after the summer break, and with just six races remaining this season, have a first constructors' title since 1998 firmly in their sights.

The form of Norris in particular has given Red Bull significant cause for concern, with the 26-year-old now just 52 points behind Verstappen in the race for the drivers' championship.

Both Verstappen and Perez have been at a loss to explain their recent woes, but team boss Horner has now offered one bizarre possible explanation.

Speaking to Motorsport.com. he pinpointed Norris' maiden win over Verstappen in Miami in round 6 as the moment when Red Bull's deficiencies first surfaced: “If you were sceptic, you'd say something's changed because we went from winning races as a canter.

“I was getting grief from Stefano [Domenicali] every weekend that the TV figures are dwindling because we're set for another year of Max Verstappen and Red Bull dominance.

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"There was a lot of pressure coming, saying: ‘Stop winning races by 20 seconds’.

"Even when we've gone back to the configuration of the car that, for example, we had in China, we still have some of the same issues that we have experienced.

“But, in saying that, it changed for everybody, potentially. But I've never in a season seen a swing so exaggerated. Obviously we have to get on top of that. We have to understand it.”

He continued: “I think there's some inadequacies in some of the tools that we had and, as we started to push the aerodynamics of these regulations, the correlation between track and car - we've lost that correlation.

“I think it wasn't really until the downforce came off the car at Monza that it really highlighted where the issues were coming from.”

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