Our target is to challenge the Brawns - Horner
The Red Bull Racing Formula One team is looking ahead to the next challenge on the 2009 Championship calendar: the Turkish Grand Prix. Team Principal Christian Horner is convinced that his team can once again be competitive in Turkey in order to close the gap with Brawn GP.
Christian Horner, Team Principal:
“In Istanbul, the RB5 will essentially be in the same specification as in Monaco, with a few minor aero updates. Istanbul Park is a fast and flowing track with the particularly challenging Turn 8 and a relatively slow final section – it therefore has some similarities to Barcelona.
“This is an important race in the Championship and our target is to challenge the Brawns who have had a remarkable run so far. It was also clear at the last two races that Ferrari have made a significant step forward and I think we can expect them to play a key role this weekend, especially as it’s a race they’ve won for the past three years.
“The high-speed Turkish track represents a completely different challenge to Monaco and it should be better suited to the strengths of our car. Mark was competitive at this circuit last year and Sebastian made his F1 debut in Turkey in 2007, as a ‘Friday-driver’ for BMW, topping the time sheet in both sessions.
“It will be important for us to achieve a strong result and our objective has to be to reduce the gap to the Championship leaders. We’ve been competitive at all the circuits so far this season, even though at a couple of races our performance has been compromised by cars equipped with KERS.
“Management of the softer tyres in the inevitably high Turkish temperatures will also be a key factor, as indeed it has been at most of the races so far. It will be important not to abuse the tyres in the high-speed turns and this could play a key role in the final result. We look forward to the weekend, it should be a really interesting race.”
