Horner saw a worst-case scenario unfold for Verstappen during the Spanish GP

17:48, 03 Jun

Updated: 18:01, 03 Jun

bySienna Ionta

Max Verstappen was on course for a solid third-place finish in Spain, despite being unable to match McLaren’s pace. But after making three stops before the safety car, he was left without fresh tyres — a worst-case scenario, as Christian Horner admitted.

Things went from bad to worse when a clash with George Russell earned Verstappen a 10-second penalty and three license points, dropping him to tenth. It was a disappointing weekend that dents his title hopes, though Horner insists the fight isn’t over yet.

Verstappen had to do something different than McLaren and opted for a three-stop strategy

Since Verstappen clearly couldn't match McLaren's speed, Red Bull Racing decided to make an extra stop. Christian Horner saw this as the only right move to possibly beat McLaren, he shared with GPblog and others.

‘’We decided to make three stops. We had set our sights on this early on, seeing that McLaren had a tire advantage and was much faster. So, we decided to pit for the first time in lap 12 and then on lap 28-29, at that time, McLaren was on a two-stop strategy. This didn't work out for us, and we had decided to go for three stops, which was actually the faster of the two strategies. There was a chance... The problem was that our tires' lifespan wasn't strong enough, where McLaren was particularly strong in the middle stint.’’

Max Verstappen at one of his pit stops during the Spanish Grand Prix

For a long time, it seemed like the right choice for Red Bull Racing, until Antonelli caused a safety car. This led to a worst-case scenario for Max Verstappen's team. ‘’The only chance we had was a potential undercut that we gave a shot with Max on his last set of soft tires. So, he had already used all his soft and medium tires and then McLaren had the advantage with both Norris and Piastri.’’

‘’When the safety car came out in lap 54, which was probably the worst possible moment for us, you're faced with the choice: do you stay on eight laps old soft tires, which would be completely destroyed at the restart, plus the fact that there are about ten racing laps to go. Unfortunately, the only set of tires we had available was a new set of hard tires. So, our feeling was that a new set of hard tires was better than an eight laps old, heavily degraded set of soft tires.’’

Verstappen was not pleased with this, as could be heard over the team radio. In the end, the weekend ended in disappointment after a clash with George Russell, which cost the Dutchman a 10-second time penalty and 3 penalty points on his license. The world champion is now on 11 points and is one penalty point away from a suspension for one race.