Red Bull boss Christian Horner explains Verstappen’s tyre strategy at the Spanish GP, after McLaren outpaced them with two stops.
Christian Horner has explained why Red Bull opted for a three-stop strategy with Max Verstappen in Barcelona on Sunday — a strategy that ultimately didn’t work out in their bid to beat the McLaren F1 drivers.
“Given how the race unfolded, we committed early on to a three-stop strategy. The pace advantage and tyre advantage McLaren held in direct combat led us to take that risk,” said Horner.
“We made the first stop early in the race while McLaren went for two stops, and our strategy appeared to be the quickest. We attempted the potential undercut with Max, but by then he had used all his soft and medium tyres.”
“The safety car came out at the worst possible moment for our strategy, and we had to choose between staying out on older tyres and being exposed on the restart, or gambling on a fresh set of hard tyres.”
The Brit admits they perhaps should have left Verstappen out on worn softs while leading: “In hindsight, things always look different, but at the time we made the best decision with the information we had available.”
“There was then contact with George: the stewards deemed Max to be at fault and issued a penalty. We’ll review it internally and think it through in more detail. It’s a frustrating outcome, as the podium looked quite straightforward for us.”
“The safety car intervention also disrupted Yuki’s race. He was very close to the points, considering his trajectory, pace, and tyre advantage. It was a tough weekend, and the results weren’t what he was hoping for, but he’ll be working closely with the team next week to improve his setup ahead of Montreal.”
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