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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes that Red Bull is in no man's land in the 2017 championship. The team is evidently behind Mercedes and Ferrari and need to mount a serious step in the development race if they want a chance of a title in 2017.
They are also visibly ahead of the mid-field pack, leading to lonely, boring races for Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo so far. The two have claimed one podium each, Verstappen in China and Ricciardo last time out in Spain.
"We are a bit in no man's land," Horner told the official F1 website. "We are trying to start playing with the big boys! And if we are going to manage that, probably one of our drivers could dictate what happens in the Drivers' Championship.
"Because if you have five or six drivers fighting for a win on a Grand Prix weekend, that becomes a somewhat different dynamic. We have demonstrated also last season that we can at least play phoenix!
"Exactly one year ago we had the same amount of points when we arrived in Barcelona and we managed to catch and beat Ferrari. Nobody would have expected that at the very beginning of 2016. So things can change quickly. And one of the key factors for us going strong last year was the engine upgrade in Monaco."
Formula 1 heads to Monaco next weekend and Red Bull will be keen to forget the happenings of that race last year. While Verstappen crashed out, Ricciardo effectively lost the race in the pitlane, as his crew didn't have the tyres ready. Ricciardo was leading the race up until that point.
However, Ricciardo also took pole position here in 2016, which could give him a confident boost and a bit of extra time to try and mix it in with the Mercedes and Ferrari's next weekend.
Fergal Walsh
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Replies (2)
Login to replyf1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
I don't understand how they can be so far ahead and so far behind at the same time
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
"Exactly one year ago we had the same amount of points when we arrived in Barcelona and we managed to catch and beat Ferrari." That was a different year. Red Bull werent that far behind Ferrari at the time, and they could also opportunise on some bad luck and reliability woes Ferrari had to face. This year, they are significantly off Ferrari's pace, and Ferrari's package is more reliable compared to last year. It'll no doubt be a tougher challenge this time.