Red Bull boss Christian Horner expects another ‘tight battle’ between his team and Ferrari at the 2022 F1 French GP. On the first day of running at Circuit Paul Ricard, early impressions revealed that the Scuderia appears to have a very strong car over one lap, but when it comes to long runs, Red Bull holds a distinct advantage.
Speaking to SkySports F1 after the sessions, Horner was overall happy with how the day went. When questioned how he expected the weekend to go, the Milton Keynes-based outfit’s boss felt it was going to be another close battle between the two top teams.
He said:
“If you have a look at that last run there over a five- or six-lap period, then I think we’re close. It’s been so tight between the two teams in the first 11 races, I’ve got no reason to believe it’s going to be that much different here. Qualifying isn’t quite the premium that it is at other circuits, because you can overtake, so you’ve got to be on the first couple of rows.”
Christian Horner was also quite pleased with the overall performance of the car on the long runs as well while admitting Ferrari had a quick car around Circuit Paul Ricard. He said:
“They [Ferrari] have had a quick car all year, and I think that we can see they are competitive again this weekend. There was one lap where they might have gone up one engine mode – the first lap on the tire.” “We look competitive on the medium, on the soft, and on the long runs it looks reasonably okay as well. It was only a five-lap ‘long run’ but, on the whole, there’s a lot of information to take away from that session.”
Red Bull losing out in the third sector of the lap
On a single lap of the Circuit Paul Ricard, Ferrari appeared to be superior to Red Bull and held a distinct advantage in lap times. When pressed on where he felt the deficit was between the two teams, Christian Horner pointed to the slow-medium speed Sector 3 where the Prancing Horse was pulling away comprehensively from everyone else.
The British said:
“I would say it’s probably more front-end [grip] Here, probably in the last sector. I think we’re competitive in sector one, we’re very competitive in sector two. Sector three is probably the bit that we’ve got to tidy up overnight, but there’s a lot to look at.”
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That’s a wrap for Friday
#FrenchGP
Max ends FP2 in P3 with a 1:33.077 and Checo is P10 with a 1:34.060
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Both teams have been engaged in intense battles this season. After the 2022 F1 Australian GP, Red Bull went on a 6-race win streak. Ferrari broke their run at Silverstone and is itself now on a 2-race win streak. It will be interesting to see what happens this weekend.
