Horner congratulates Red Bull and Verstappen after major milestone

The former Red Bull Racing team principal previously played a key role in the Red Bull Powertrains project, which began under his leadership at the Milton Keynes-based team.

In Malaysia, the project achieved a major milestone. After Verstappen previously scored the power unit's first podium in Canada, he won the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia to secure its first victory as well.

It was an emotional moment for Horner as well to see the project succeed. On social media, together with an image of the power unit, he wrote: "From a hole in the ground to race winner in five years. Huge congratulations to Red Bull Ford Powertrains, Max and the whole team. An incredible achievement!"

After winning four world titles from 2021 to 2024 and just missing out on the 2025 crown by two points, Verstappen is not in the battle this season. The Dutchman had to wait for his first victory until October.

After his victory, the Red Bull Racing driver said: "It's a really nice one after the year we've had and the progression we have made. I'm incredibly proud of everyone. Just super nice to win here."

It was all but a straightforward race in Malaysia. He continued: "It was very hectic with a lot of different things at the start - no power, because you have to wait for the power to kick in. We made the right call with the intermediates. After that, step by step we moved out way forward. From there, once we could do our own race then we had the Safety Car but we kept it all under control."