Horner does not blame Vettel
The team manager of the Red Bull team, Christian Horner, does not wish to blame his driver, Sebastian Vettel, after his error in the last lap of the Canadian Grand Prix which cost him the victory, in favor of McLaren driver, Jenson Button.
After 69 laps of the Gilles Villeneuve circuit flawlessly led, the 70th lap reminded everyone that Vettel is not a superhuman. As the German driver was heading towards his sixth victory of the year, the pressure from Button, who was less than a second behind and able to use his DRS, overcame the German composure of the Red Bull driver. The latter went slightly off the dry line in a corner, allowing Button to claim his first victory of the season.
Although Vettel expressed his disappointment after this blunder, Horner indicates that his protégé has nothing to be ashamed of and is full of praise for his performance in such conditions: “It’s nothing,” he says regarding Vettel’s mistake. “Look at what happened throughout the Grand Prix. Many errors were made in really difficult conditions, and he shouldn’t be too hard on himself.”
«I believe he managed the race very well. I think Sebastian had a phenomenal race in very difficult conditions. He might have even been the only one not to make any mistakes.»
In the 70th and final lap of the race, Vettel was pushing to stay over a second ahead of his pursuer, Button. This was to ensure that the latter could not activate his DRS. At the end of the race, Jenson was very, very quick and Sebastian knew it, because we saw how effective the DRS was in this zone; he absolutely had to keep him more than a second behind until the checkered flag, Horner explains.
By pushing hard, he put his wheels slightly on the wet part of the track, locked his rear axle, and that’s what made the difference between winning and losing.
Obviously, losing a race in the last lap is frustrating, but on the other hand, neither Lewis [Hamilton] nor Fernando [Alonso] scored points, and there were many incidents. On a track where we weren’t supposed to be really competitive, finishing in second and third positions is an excellent team result.
Finally, Horner also praised the FIA’s decision to restart the race after the red flag, when Vettel was then in the lead and could have obtained half the points: «If the race had been stopped, we would probably have obtained only 12.5 points, but we got 18. So it’s a positive result.»
