Red Bull inspires Leclerc after Verstappen's victory: 'We need to understand that'

Due to heavy rain before the start of the race at Sepang, the start was delayed. When the race finally got underway, parts of the track had already somewhat dried, but ultimately intermediates were the right tyres to start the race with. Red Bull chose the correct strategy, while Ferrari’s decision to opt for the softs did not pay off.

"I was aligned with the team," Leclerc began to GPblog, among others. "Think it was a close call as it always is in these conditions. Yeah, we'll speak whether to split the cars in those conditions is the best possible way."

He added: "But it's also true that when you split the cars, by definition, there's one very wrong choice and one very good choice. And it's very difficult to have an in between scenario where both kind of pans out the same."

Red Bull is known for choosing the right strategies. At Sepang, the team once again made the right calls. "So we thought we were doing the right thing, obviously. But clearly, there's one team in particular, and that is Red Bull, that gets it right most of the time with both cars. And for that, we need to understand what they are doing better than we do.”

After the race, team principal Frederic Vasseur stood by the team's call. The Frenchman acknowledged that with hindsight, it was not the correct decision, but they chose the best option with what they had available.

Verstappen’s victory was the Dutchman’s first of the year. It was also the first win with the Red Bull Ford engine. After the race, the Dutchman was over the moon. "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 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," the Dutchman concluded after the race.