Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner has warned Max Verstappen of avoiding a “risk-and-reward” first lap.
Verstappen will start the race on pole position after Valtteri Bottas took a penalty to start the race at the back of the grid. However, Horner has cautioned Verstappen against repeating what happened at Silverstone. He mentioned this time, he has more to lose, and warned him of avoiding a “risk-and-reward” first lap.
“I think you get into that risk-and-reward scenario,” Horner said, as quoted by GP Fans.
“Of course, he is going to fight for the win, that is his instinct but at the end of the day, you have got to be there for the chequered flag.
“We saw the consequence of that at Silverstone and we don’t want a repeat of that following the sprint so, of course, the objective is to convert pole position into a victory but I think there are going to be challenges tomorrow.”
Relief
Monza is a track where Red Bull have historically floundered. They continued that trend on Friday and Saturday, with Mercedes and McLaren looking faster than them. So the fact that Verstappen got pole position handed to him is a big sigh of relief, according to Marko.
When asked if he would have bitten someone’s hand off for a pole position, Horner affirmed, saying, “Not just your hand. It is our first pole in the hybrid era here – or I think it’s pole.
“We are starting from first on the grid. It is the first time we have been in the top three so a good performance, two points are valuable for us, we are happy with that.
“It has always been a bit of a bogey circuit for us so it is quite phenomenal that we are starting the race from first place. We just need to try and convert it now,” he concluded.
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