Horner: "From that moment on, I thought: game on, we can win this!"

Christian Horner says the idea of starting on the hard tyres wasn't just made up. At first, it was gambled on a safety car, so Max Verstappen would have more grip by the end of the race, but it even turned out that the grip in the race itself was much better than their opponents.

Gamble on the safety car

Horner said in an online press release from Red Bull Racing that several simulations preceded the strategy.

"At least with the hard tyre, the theory was that with a possible safety car we would have a grip advantage at the end of the race. Instead, we already had an advantage throughout the race."

Red Bull's British team boss says he has always had full confidence in Verstappen, even when he was told to take it easy on the tyres and Verstappen himself preferred to keep fighting. "I think Max has a great feeling for these tyres, as we've seen many times," he says.

"We know that when you follow a car up close, you damage the tyres. We knew Mercedes would make a pit stop sooner because they were driving on softer tyres. We just wanted to be sure that Verstappen had enough of his tyres left. He was very confident and protected the tyres through the high-speed turns," Horner continues.

The moment Horner knew they could win

Horner then looks back briefly on the moment he knew they could win the race.

"It was in the first stint when Mercedes made a pit stop and we were still riding at the same speed as them, while we had much older tyres. Their tyres also started to blister very quickly. Then I thought: Okay, game on, we can win this! Then we won another pit stop over them. From that point on, it was just checking the race and the tyres."