{"id":1129,"date":"2019-08-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/how-red-bull-prepare-to-win-a-formula-1-race\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:30","slug":"red-bull-christian-horner","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/red-bull-christian-horner\/","title":{"rendered":"How Red Bull Prepare to Win a Formula 1 Race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Aug 15, 2019 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

How Red Bull Prepare to Win a Formula 1 Race<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Leadership & Culture<\/a> <\/div>\n
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Team Principal Christian Horner points to five factors that led to the team\u2019s success at the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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The clock was ticking for Red Bull but the race had not yet begun.<\/h4>\n

Get into preparation mode and join us for this year’s Sport Performance Summit at Twickenham Stadium on 12-13 November for more in-depth insight to challenge your thinking. Click here<\/a> to find out more.<\/p>\n

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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

In fact, the qualifying session for the race had not even started when a broken turbo all but destroyed the engine of then Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo during a practice session at the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Red Bull needed the car back in the garage and the engine replaced ahead of the qualifying session later that afternoon. Under Formula 1 regulations, the team had just two hours to retrieve the stricken car, replace the engine and all damaged components, or Ricciardo would be unable to enter qualifying.<\/p>\n

From potentially competing for pole position, the Australian faced starting the next afternoon\u2019s race from the back of the grid.<\/p>\n

It was now over to Red Bull\u2019s retinue of engineers, mechanics and technicians to replace the engine in record time, which they managed, and not only would Ricciardo qualify in sixth position but he would proceed to win the race in emphatic fashion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy on that day were we better than our opponents?\u201d asks Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner<\/a>, with the full intention of providing the answer. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a faster car that day, we just used our strategy tools better than our opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horner, whose team have won the drivers\u2019 and constructors\u2019 world championships on four occasions, is speaking at the 2018 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in London<\/a> about the teamwork, data-driven decision-making and two-way communication that goes into taking the chequered flag at a Formula 1 race. It is clear from the off that the drivers are merely the most visible part of a 900-person operation run with military precision. Here are five controllable factors that enabled Red Bull\u2019s success that weekend.<\/p>\n

1. Red Bull Racing is the embodiment of team<\/strong><\/p>\n

Never was this perhaps more evident than during those two hours when Ricciardo could not be certain that he would be able to return to his car. The qualifying session was audible beyond the paddock as members of the team working on the car of Max Verstappen, Ricciardo\u2019s teammate at the time, morphed into those serving the other car. Verstappen\u2019s car was all but good to go and so his team could transfer their attention when needed. \u201cWe operate as a team and all the members of the team only get rewarded on where we finish in the constructors\u2019 championship, not on the drivers\u2019 [championship],\u201d explains Horner. \u201cI always say the guys it doesn\u2019t say \u2018Max Verstappen Racing\u2019 on your shirt or \u2018Daniel Ricciardo Racing\u2019 and there\u2019s a real sense of embodiment of team.\u201d Later, when Ricciardo had topped the podium, Horner decided to send Chris Gent, the Number One Technician on Ricciardo\u2019s car, to collect the team\u2019s prize. \u201cAfter that engine change against the odds, after the two double pit stops they\u2019d done during the race that had effectively won Daniel the race, it was right for him to represent the team on the podium and the mechanics in the garage on that day to go and collect the constructors\u2019 trophy.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. The team tapped into the strategic element behind risk and reward<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Red Bull cars qualified for the race with Verstappen starting in fifth place and Ricciardo in sixth. Both vehicles used ultrasoft tyres in the final qualifying session, which denoted the team\u2019s choice for the start of the race. It stood in contrast to the four drivers ahead on the grid, who elected to use soft tyres. This divergence is the result of strategic decisions made for each driver that weighed up the risk and reward factors in each case. \u201cThe ultrasoft is the more aggressive tyre. It is quicker over a single lap but has high degradation, so it was immediately forcing our hand to say this was a two-stop race,\u201d explains Horner. The decision was made in the knowledge that Red Bull gave away 50 horsepower to their nearest rivals. For all that, Red Bull won the race and Horner credits the team\u2019s data-driven decision-making. \u201cWe look at the strategic element based on the data we have and based on the amount of risk versus reward make that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. No stone was left unturned in preparation<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit takes place more than 9,000km from Red Bull Racing\u2019s operational base at Milton Keynes in the UK. The team takes approximately 100 staff to each and every grand prix \u2013 including the 67 engineers, mechanics and technicians permitted by Formula 1 regulations \u2013 but those remaining at base camp are no less involved. It is the very embodiment of team. \u201cOur mission control room received 400 terabytes of data from wherever we in the world,\u201d reveals Horner. \u201cIt enables us to engage people from the factory in the race weekend, looking live at the data as the car is being driven, hearing what the driver\u2019s saying, following all the engine parameters, and so on. Whereas in the old days the race team would go away and come back with a bunch of notes and report what happened, this involves the factory very much in the race weekend and enables us to make informed decisions about reliability, about setup, and about strategy.\u201d No stone is left unturned and ensures that Horner and the team can make key decisions, such as the double-stop strategy, under the keenest pressure. \u201cOn a Sunday morning this room will be full of analysts that are looking at competitor analysis and looking at parameters on what our own car is doing and we will discuss various scenarios about the potential race ahead. We\u2019ll try to cover all the broad scenarios but what you can\u2019t simulate everything.\u201d For the most part, however, Red Bull know what they can expect.<\/p>\n

4. The input of driver Daniel Ricciardo was essential<\/strong><\/p>\n

The safety car was introduced on lap 30 of the race when there was a collision between the Toro Rosso cars of Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly. That moment led to the decisive double pit stop that proved crucial to Ricciardo\u2019s victory yet, throughout it all, the Australian remained unflustered, his cognitive capacity undiminished. \u201cThere\u2019s a constant dialogue and the driver always sounds like they\u2019re on a Sunday afternoon drive,\u201d says Horner with both admiration and bemusement. \u201cWhat often staggers me with the drivers is, around the circuit, there are big screens for the crowd to watch and the driver will be keeping an eye on what is going on in the race behind him and will be coming on the radio occasionally and say \u2018what tyre is Sebastian Vettel now on that he\u2019s surpassed [Valtteri] Bottas?\u2019 \u2013 how did he see that? Their peripheral vision is phenomenal despite driving the cars at huge speeds.\u201d This ability is essential for the race and performance engineers who monitor the car\u2019s myriad sensors because only drivers can make the necessary adjustments. \u201cThe engines are enormously complicated and no settings can be made to the car remotely: the driver has to input each of those settings. On the steering wheel he has a whole host of settings that he\u2019s having to deal with.<\/p>\n

5. The team will challenge Horner\u2026 and he will challenge the team<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Team Principal, Horner sits atop the team and has the final sign-off on all matters strategic, tactical and safety-based. Sometimes, that sign-off is a formality but there will be plenty of occasions when Horner weighs up the available evidence and pushes back. He suggests that is important for the Team Principal to have that scope. \u201cThe data being placed in front of you is just an absolute and you have the ability to challenge it,\u201d he says. \u201cSo quite often I will challenge it the other way down the chain and say \u2018you\u2019re saying [the driver] come in\u2019 well what if we stay out? What if we split the cars? [It is important to] have the opportunity to challenge that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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