Red Bull boss Christian Horner feels that Lando Norris was starting to crack under pressure from Max Verstappen during the F1 Australian GP. The race in Melbourne was a chaotic one as it introduced quite a few interesting variables. There were stoppages, there was a safety car period, there was a period dry enough for slick tires, and then we had rain make an appearance once again.
Through all of this, we ended up with the last stint, which was an 8-lap shootout where Verstappen was hounding Norris and trying to get the jump on him. The Red Bull driver appeared to have a decent pace compared to his McLaren rival and was able to stay within the DRS range.
This was, however, not the entire story of the race weekend, where Verstappen just didn't have the car to compete with Norris. By qualifying, it had become clear that McLaren's ability to manage its drivers gave the team a significant edge over the rest of the field.
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It was only the wet weather and Lando Norris making a slight mistake and damaging his floor that helped Max Verstappen keep up with him in the end. Talking to the media, including Pitdebrief, Red Bull's Christian Horner felt that the McLaren driver was starting to tighten up a bit under pressure from his driver. He said:
“It very nearly paid off to get the overcut and get the lead but, in the end, when it all played out, [Max Verstappen] managed to jump back up into second for what became an eight-lap shootout to the finish and he very nearly nicked it at the end there. So Lando looked like he tightened a little at the end of the race.”
He added:
"He made a mistake at turn six, went half off the track. That gave Max a little bit of a run at a track that’s very difficult to overtake [on]. And then at the next lap he got another run. So yeah, a very, very close finish to an exciting race. For us, I think it’s a very solid start to what’s going to be a marathon of a year.”
Premise behind Max Verstappen choosing a different strategy to Lando Norris
During the race, while Lando Norris jumped straight into the pits as soon as it started raining, leading to the driver going off track in the third sector, Max Verstappen continued on track for a couple of laps. The premise behind the strategy, according to Horner, was Red Bull trying to gain track position on the McLaren driver because overtaking is not the easiest in Melbourne. Horner said:
That’s where you’re working with the driver. The first two sectors were quicker. The third sector was so much down at that point and we knew the rain wasn’t going to hang around for long, and if you could just bank that track position, it’s so valuable here because you just can’t overtake."
He added:
“So that’s what we were rolling the dice a little for. McLaren were super conservative. Both of their drivers had big moments. And it looked like it might just play out, but if the rain had veered off, then we could have been lucky. But congratulations to Lando, he drove a good race today in difficult conditions for all of the drivers."
Max Verstappen will be hoping to build on the performance in China but it is safe to say the Dutch driver has an uphill task in front of him.
