Problem that caused Max Verstappen retirement in Australia has been fixed, insists Christian Horner

Red Bull have faced some issues with their car this season

Red Bull have had a tricky season in terms of retirements (Getty Images)

Christian Horner has said the issues with Max Verstappen’s car which forced him to retire from the Australian Grand Prix have been fixed.

It was the second time Verstappen didn’t finish a race this season due to faults with his car. The defending champion is in sixth in the driver standings as a result and the Red Bull star will have to rebuild his season from the Imola race on Sunday.

“We’ve been working with our colleagues at HRC in Japan, and they found the issue and they resolved it,” Horner told Sky Sports F1.

“And I believe we have a fix for this weekend. It was just very, very unfortunate, a part that’s done tens of thousands of kilometres without ever an issue unfortunately appeared at exactly the wrong time in Australia.”

The retirements for Verstappen and his teammate Perez - the Mexican driver didn’t finish the Bahrain race - mean Red Bull need to start scoring if they have a hope in the constructors title.

Horner’s team are currently third, 49 points behind first place Ferrari. The team principal is aware Red Bull needs to start putting points on the board.

“It’s an important weekend for us,” he told Autosport. “I mean, there’s a lot of points available this weekend, and we want to make sure that we’re there to capitalise. We can’t afford the gap to grow again to Ferrari, so we need to start eroding it rather than seeing it grow.”

Verstappen himself has also been realistic about his title chances with Charles Leclerc steaming ahead in the driver standings. The Dutchman is sixth and doubts he’ll be able to hold onto the trophy he won in 2021.

When asked about his title prospects, he told Sky: “At the moment, there is no reason to believe in it.”