F1 News: Red Bull Chief Hints At Major Issue – “It Leaked Petrol But We Don’t Know Where And How”

While the cause of Max Verstappen’s retirement is currently unknown, Verstappen said that he feared not making it to the end when Red Bull mechanics were seen working hard on his car on the grid.

“I knew there was a problem,” he said. “So it was always going to be a question mark of finishing the race.

“I mean, these kinds of things. If you want to fight for the title, they cannot happen.”

Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, fully accepted for Verstappen’s disappointment at the situation, but has admitted that the priority was to speak to the engineers and understand exactly what had gone wrong.

“It is totally understandable, his frustration,” he said. “We don’t know what the issue is yet, but I don’t think it’s actually engine related. I think it might be a fuel issue, but we need to get the car back.

“We need to be able to look at exactly what’s happened.”

Fortunately, Horner is still feeling positive about the team’s car admitting that’s it’s still quick:

“I’d rather fix a fast car then try to make a reliable, slow one fast,” he explained. “We need to get on top of it. We can’t accept DNFs but we need to understand what the issue is. And we have got to address it.”

Sky F1 reporter Ted Kravitz has admitted however that Red Bull won’t know what’s happening with its car for quite some time:

“I’ve been asking the question about what exactly happened. We know liquids were omitted that weren’t meant to be emitted.

“Max said the car effectively had a moment to itself, and he was told to shut it off.”

Helmut Marko added his input on what he thinks the issue could stem from:

“It leaked petrol, but we don’t know where and how,” Marko told Sky Sport Germany. “It just leaked a lot of petrol, that’s why we said he should stop immediately. Preferably where there is a fire extinguisher.”

Marko continued to admit that the cost cap is restricting the development of the car massively:

“We don’t just have these reliability problems, which are actually largely unknown to us. We don’t know that at all,” he said. “The other thing is this weight problem. We’re well ahead, heavier of Ferrari there.

“That’s a difficult balancing act, even with the cost gap.

“Difficult times are ahead for us. We were surprised at how fast Ferrari was today.”