Christian Horner wants to focus on Red Bull’s positives from the Saudi Arabian GP despite Max Verstappen’s penalty

Red Bull Racing CEO Christian Horner believes that Max Verstappen finishing second at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is not a discouraging result, despite the penalty that cost them a potential win. Speaking to the media, including Sportskeeda, after the race, the Briton felt it was better to focus on the positives from the weekend, where Red Bull showed stronger pace than McLaren.

Verstappen crossed the line 2.6 seconds behind Oscar Piastri. If it had not been for the penalty at the first chicane, he might have taken the win. The Dutchman was handed a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage while overtaking the McLaren driver. As a result, he had to serve the penalty during his only pit stop, which denied him any chance to undercut the McLaren through strategy.

Horner believes there was no opportunity for Verstappen to close in on Piastri until lap 44, when he finally began to reduce the gap. For most of the race, the Red Bull driver trailed the McLaren with a consistent gap of five to seven seconds. Horner noted that there was no tyre management involved, as the race was flat out from start to finish. He added that McLaren had appeared to be at least 1.2 seconds faster than the rest of the field in free practice. However, he saw a key positive in the fact that Red Bull had stronger race pace than McLaren on Sunday.

He attributed the improvement in performance to the engineers giving Verstappen a stronger package by the time they reached qualifying. Horner believed that if the incident with Piastri at the first chicane had not occurred, Red Bull would have beaten McLaren. He viewed the performance in the race as an encouraging sign, calling it their most competitive weekend of the season so far. Instead of focusing on the single negative that cost them victory, he preferred to highlight the several positives from the weekend.

Asked by Sportskeeda if Max Verstappen could have started his charge on Piastri a few laps earlier, Horner said:

“I think they were all flat out, the hard tyre was very robust today, so there wasn't really any tyre saving. So I think, look, let's focus on the positives. We qualified on pole, we finished second, And, you know, we had the pace which on Friday looked like McLaren had got 1.2 seconds on the whole field. So, you know, we'll take encouragement out of this race that on both medium and the hard tyres, I am sure the analysis will show that we were quicker than them this weekend.”

Asked if Red Bull’s form in Jeddah was track-specific or if they had changed something on the car, Horner explained:

“I think that the engineering team have done a good job in giving him a car by the time we got to qualifying and indeed in the race. There was probably our most competitive race of the year to date. In terms of raw pace, we were able to pull away from the McLaren, you know we're closing them down here. So yeah I think we'll take some encouragement out of that."

"We’re only 12 points behind the new leader in Oscar with what two points behind Lando. So you know it's I think there's an awful lot of positives that we can take out of the weekend. The frustrating thing is that we felt that we had them beat today and unfortunately a really marginal call that, that first chicane has been the difference,” he added.

Horner further asserted his belief that Red Bull performed better compared to McLaren at the Saudi Arabian GP.

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Christian Horner believes that Red Bull did a better job than McLaren in Saudi Arabia

Christian Horner on the pit wall during the F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia- Source: Getty

Christian Horner believes that Red Bull did a better job overall than McLaren with their car at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. He noted that McLaren seemed to have the advantage in Friday’s practice sessions when the track was warmer, but was puzzled by their relative lack of pace in cooler conditions during the race.

In comparison to Ferrari and Mercedes, he felt that McLaren’s performance gap was within the expected range. He acknowledged that Ferrari had strong pace with minimal tyre degradation, while Mercedes struggled significantly with tyre wear. Overall, Horner considered Red Bull’s performance in Jeddah to be encouraging.

Despite the disappointment of not being able to beat McLaren, Horner believed there were still positives to take from the weekend. He described Bahrain as an outlier where the Red Bull car struggled in hotter conditions, but emphasized that the team was working on making improvements ahead of the Miami Grand Prix. He suggested that Red Bull was actively addressing some of the issues with the current package to enhance performance at future circuits.

Asked where McLaren lacked the pace or if it was Red Bull who had done a better job, Horner mentioned:

“I don’t know. I think that we've done a better job and certainly their pace in the heat on Friday was insane. So that looks normal even compared to a Ferrari, the Mercedes has degged [degradation] quite a lot. You know the Ferrari, Leclercs had you know arguably a very good deg and pace as well. So yeah I mean that's encouraging.”

Pointed out that Red Bull might not have the similar luxury in Miami as they did in Jeddah, Horner said:

“No, but look, the last, if you look at this triple header on the whole, we've had two pole positions, the first and the second, Bahrain was the outlier that we were out the window. So, and we know there's areas of the car that we need to improve and you know we’re working very hard on to address some of those. So I think of course everybody’s super disappointed in the outcome of the race today and it felt like a race that we had McLaren beat. But you know it is what it is. We have to say congrats to Oscar and we'll take the positives out of the weekend and focus on Miami.”

The Red Bull RB21 has performed well at circuits with high-speed corners and high downforce demands. However, the car has struggled in warmer conditions, particularly on tracks featuring slow and medium speed corners.

So far, Red Bull has secured just one victory this season, with Max Verstappen winning in Japan, a race held in wet conditions where the performance gap between teams narrowed. Currently, Verstappen sits third in the Drivers’ Championship with 87 points, trailing Lando Norris by two points and leader Oscar Piastri by 12.

In the Constructors’ Championship, Red Bull is third with 89 points, 22 points behind Mercedes and 99 behind reigning champions McLaren. With the upcoming race in Miami taking place at a circuit that features slower corners and typically warm conditions, Red Bull faces a race against time to improve the RB21’s performance.