With Pink Bull’s RB19 proving to be the category of the sphere and nicely away from the opposition, the struggle for the drivers’ championship seems to be completely between its drivers.
Such an inner rivalry has proved onerous for squads to cope with prior to now as a result of it heightens the prospects of aggressive tensions boiling over.
Horner is nicely conscious of the risks that such a state of affairs poses, however he thinks that so long as his staff does all it could possibly to deal with each Verstappen and Perez equally on all fronts, there won’t be any issues.
“I believe that it is a luxurious downside,” mentioned Horner when requested by Autosport about what was the most important problem in coping with two drivers gunning for the title.
“To start with, any staff principal within the pitlane would hope to have that difficulty, and it is one thing we have skilled earlier than.
“Essentially the most key factor is to make sure that paranoia would not creep in and that each drivers are handled equally.
“You go to pains to supply equality to the purpose of who drives out the storage first every weekend. They even alternate within the debrief over who talks first.
“However , it is racing, it is Method 1, and infrequently one thing will occur like a security automobile or pitstop. You may’t management each side inside the sport and there are nonetheless variables.
“I believe as long as the drivers know that they are each getting an equal likelihood, and it is in the end all the way down to what they do on the circuit. That is the place you need it to play out, not by reliability, for instance, to play a key function in a championship struggle between your two drivers inside your personal staff.”
The Mercedes perspective
Toto Wolff, Staff Principal and CEO, Mercedes-AMG, within the Staff Principals Press Convention
Photograph by: Motorsport Images
Mercedes staff principal Toto Wolff has confronted his personal challenges prior to now in coping with troublesome conditions between drivers, particularly when Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton got here to blows a number of instances.
He’s conscious of how onerous it may be to see by such conditions – which is why he thinks whole transparency between them is crucial.
“From my previous it is a tremendous tough job for Christian and the staff, as a result of each drivers will clearly attempt to all the time really feel that they’re pretty and equally handled while on the identical time attempting to have a bonus,” he mentioned.
“In our staff it was essential to take care of numerous transparency and readability, have discussions earlier than we truly go racing on a Sunday, and put boundaries.
“On the finish, each drivers, even with Nico and Lewis, revered the staff’s opinion while we acknowledged that there’s a struggle, they usually have a struggle on between the 2 of them. So going again in time, there’s issues I in all probability would have finished otherwise in 2016, notably.
“However getting the stability proper between accepting that these two guys are racing for a championship, and it is inside the identical storage, and on the identical time, they’re half of a bigger construction. I believe that is not all the time simple, as a result of they’re very aggressive animals.”
