Karun Chandhok calls Christian Horner the ‘master of deflection’ after discovering truth about Red Bull issues

Red Bull are nearly 100 points behind McLaren just five races into the 2025 Formula 1 season. The gap is already larger than it was at the end of last year.

The team’s priority is winning the drivers’ championship, so they will be quietly satisfied to see Max Verstappen only 12 points behind Oscar Piastri. But the RB21 is clearly a peaky and difficult car.

That’s best summed up by the ongoing struggles of Verstappen’s teammates, who have contributed just two points so far. But even the world champion was only able to drag the car to sixth in Bahrain.

Red Bull seem to be competitive through high-speed corners, allowing Verstappen to deliver excellent pole laps in Bahrain and Jeddah. But while their performance drops considerably at less favourable venues, McLaren are strong everywhere.

Karun Chandhok rejects Christian Horner’s wind tunnel excuse at Red Bull

Red Bull have partly attributed their problems to their wind tunnel, which they often label a ‘relic of the Cold War’. The data it produces doesn’t correlate with what they see on track.

Therefore, when Red Bull introduce upgrades, they don’t necessarily enjoy the projected benefits. A new, modernised facility is under construction at Milton Keynes.

But speaking on Sky Sports’ F1 Show, Karun Chandhok suggested that Christian Horner was making an excuse befitting a ‘politician’. Red Bull’s sister team Racing Bulls use the same wind tunnel.

And Chandhok has spoken to contacts at Laurent Mekies’ team who say they’ve had no such correlation problem. On that basis, the blame lies with Red Bull.

“Every time I listen to Christian Horner’s ‘our wind tunnel’s a relic of the Cold War’ thing, it’s just PR spin isn’t it?” Chandhok said. “He’s such a master politician. He’s the master of deflection.

“I don’t see Racing Bulls complaining about correlation. They use the same wind tunnel. I actually asked a couple of the people at Racing Bulls whether they’d struggled with the correlation. They said ‘nope’. It comes back to a Red Bull Racing issue.”

Christian Horner owes Natalie Pinkham an apology after Karun Chandhok discovery

Horner defended Verstappen after the Saudi Arabian GP, where he received a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage at turn one. The Englishman brought screenshots to his press briefing to argue his case.

Red Bull claimed that Verstappen was ahead of Piastri at the apex. But the stewards felt that the McLaren had made the corner his own.

Given that the Bulls decided not to appeal the penalty, it now seems as if they were putting on a show for the media. Verstappen may nonetheless appreciate the support.

But he’ll be frustrated that the team are still experiencing some of the problems that arose in 2024. Horner was blunt with Natalie Pinkham when she suggested that Racing Bulls weren’t complaining about the wind tunnel, but it looks like she was right.