Horner: No team orders at Red Bull!
Christian Horner, the sporting director of Red Bull, made it clear that he had complete trust in his drivers and did not plan to issue any team orders to favor one of them until the end of the season.
With three consecutive victories to his name this year, Daniel Ricciardo has positioned himself as the main rival to the Mercedes drivers. Behind the wheel of his Red Bull, the young Australian has largely dominated his quadruple world champion teammate, the German Sebastian Vettel.
With his victories in Canada, Hungary, and Belgium, Ricciardo is in third place in the World Drivers’ Championship, 50 points behind Lewis Hamilton. Meanwhile, Sebastien Vettel is only sixth in the championship, trailing his teammate by 60 points. Does this give the Australian some ideas? He certainly doesn’t close the door to any possibilities: « I would like to be faster on my own merit and not on team orders. But the upcoming circuits will be perfect for us, so if we need to make some decisions to fight with Mercedes for the title, I’m sure that’s what we’ll do. »
But despite this, Christian Horner, the team principal of Red Bull, refuses to consider giving team orders to favor one of his drivers in a title race that seems unwinnable in his view: I think we are going to let our drivers fight. We trust them and they are both fighting hard, wheel to wheel in a very fair manner. The points difference between the two Mercedes and Daniel is huge, so it would make no sense for us to interfere in our drivers’ race.
