The F1 Spanish GP marked the end of the European triple-header, and Sunday’s race turned into a rollercoaster of unexpected events. Christian Horner, Red Bull’s team principal, clarifies what happened during the weekend for his drivers Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda.
A strategy thrown away by a safety car
As the team principal himself stated, initially, the three-stop strategy was going to be the key element of the race during the F1 Spanish GP. However, the retirement involving Antonelli triggered a safety car.
Red Bull got put in a tough situation. Either pit for hards or stay out on used softs. They opted to box.
Verstappen had a huge slide on the restart, losing out to Charles Leclerc.
“Spain closes out the triple-header, and we leave Barcelona frustrated that we didn’t take more from the race. As a team we attacked on the three-stop which was the better strategy and it was only the safety car which had us over.
“We would never have been as close to Lando [Norris] if it wasn’t for the three-stopper.”
Decisions made under limited information
Many say that when a safety car appears, it helps some drivers but creates challenges for others. For the Red Bull team, it was clearly the latter. According to Christian Horner, the safety car came out at the most unfortunate time for the team with only new hard tyres available to them.
“The safety car came out at the worst possible time for our strategy, we had the choice to stay out on older tyres or take the gamble with a new set of hard tyres”.
The team made their decision based on the information available at the time. As Horner explained: “Hindsight is always 20/20, but we made the best decision at the time with the information we had”.
Max Verstappen was on course to secure an easy podium finish and earn important championship points, but the result disappointed everyone. This situation demonstrates how unpredictable racing is, with unexpected events able to overturn even the best strategies.
“The result that followed was frustrating as it was looking to be an easy podium for Max and good championship points.”
An apology from Max Verstappen following F1 Spanish GP rage
During the final laps, Max Verstappen was involved in that hugely controversial crash with George Russell. During the Red Bull internal debrief the Brit revealed the four-time World Champion had apologised to the team for his moment of rage.
The safety car hurt also Yuki Tsunoda’s race; without it, he likely would have been very close to the points following a pit lane start.
Christian Horner also revealed his lead driver apologised for his actions on Sunday.
“Max apologised in the debrief for his incident with Russell. The SC also hurt Yuki’s race, he would’ve been very close if not in the points otherwise if you look at the trajectory he was on.
“But that’s racing. It can turn in a split second. It is one of the reasons we are all so captivated and in love with this sport“.
Horner says the team will focus on improvements to give their all at the next Grand Prix in Montreal despite a tough weekend.
“It was a tough weekend, but we will busy working hard over the next weeks to make some set-up improvements to the car and come back strong in Montreal.”
