Horner admits Red Bull ‘not even thinking about the championship’ after ‘very frustrating’ day in Austria

Christian Horner was left to rue a “very frustrating” sequence of events in Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix after Red Bull left their home race without scoring any points.

Max Verstappen completed only two corners at the Red Bull Ring before being taken out of the action by Mercedes rival Kimi Antonelli, who misjudged his approach to Turn 3 and subsequently earned a three-place grid penalty for Silverstone.

Yuki Tsunoda, meanwhile, was the final finisher in 16th position, having struggled to make an impression after his Q1 exit and been given a 10-second penalty for tipping Franco Colapinto’s Alpine into a spin exiting Turn 4.

The result means Red Bull fall even further behind their rivals in the Teams’ Championship, holding 162 points to McLaren’s 417, while Verstappen is 61 adrift of Oscar Piastri in the Drivers’ standings.

“A frustrating day,” Red Bull team boss Horner summed up on F1 TV’s post-race show. “Starting with Max, he had a great start and was well-positioned for Turn 1. At Turn 3 unfortunately Kimi just lost control and wiped him out. Very frustrating… Obviously Kimi’s apologised. It is what it is.

“I think when you look at the pace, we wouldn’t have fought the McLarens today, but we’d have fought the Ferraris hard, for sure. George [Russell] had no pace. It was frustrating.

“With Yuki, it’s difficult to make progress starting where he did on the grid, then picking up a penalty as well with Colapinto. A horrible race for him today as well. Frustrating, but we’ll move on quickly to Silverstone.”

With that in mind, Horner was asked how Red Bull can “remedy” the struggles several drivers have now faced in the seat alongside Verstappen – and ensure that both cars are in a position to score points moving forward.

“We need to understand with Yuki what’s gone wrong [this weekend],” he continued. “FP1 and FP2, certainly FP2 and FP3, he was looking okay. Qualifying it seemed to fall apart for him.

“When you’re out of position, you’re down the pack like that, when it’s so tight… he’s struggling, I think he’s struggling for confidence. But we’ll work with him, we’ll try and help him through it.

“The car is… it’s a car that’s evolved over the years around the development path that we’ve taken. It isn’t an easy car to drive, but it’s not that difficult either. We’ll work with him and hopefully it’ll make a step up in Silverstone.”

Given the significant gaps that have developed in both championships, Horner knows Verstappen and Red Bull now face a tall order to add to their recent title successes in 2025.

“Well, look, the championship we’re not even thinking about,” he conceded. “We’re just focused on each race now. They’re [McLaren] a long way out of touch. We’ll just take things race by race.

Verstappen has won the last four Drivers’ titles on the bounce, while Red Bull were crowned Teams’ champions in 2022 and 2023 before being overhauled by McLaren last season.