by VALERIO BARRETTA
GP Spain, Horner enjoys Super Max
Max Verstappen he never makes mistakes, but even the Red Bull wall is no joke. The Milton Keynes team has what McLaren cannot yet have: experience and the ability to stay clear when it matters most. These are things that will come with time, they are growth steps that Red Bull also went through in the fight with Mercedes. In Woking today they paid dearly not only for Lando Norris’s mistake at the start but also for an unfortunate management of the strategy, with late pit stops that forced the #4 into an eternal chase and allowed Verstappen to manage almost ten seconds of advantage.
McLaren cries and learns, Red Bull smiles and rejoices. Team principal Chris Horner underlines how the team played a perfect race against a car that is probably superior, but which has neither the experience nor Verstappen.
Horner’s words
“It’s more satisfying to win by fighting Norris like this, but it’s nicer when you have a 40-second lead. It was a great race, Max did a great job. The start was crucial, and after overtaking Russell we ran a very strategic race, without errors and without problems“, this is the first comment from the British a Sky Sports F1. “Max goes in combination with the team. We got all the decisions right today, then Max takes the work home on the track. He overtook Russell very quickly at the right time, held off Norris at the start and then managed the tyres. Then we went fast, we knew we would be close with Lando at the end, we shouldn’t have made any mistakes and the team didn’t make any today“.
“Max is the best driver in the world at the moment, but car and driver must work in harmony. For many years we didn’t win races even though we had Max in the car: everything has to work in harmony. Max is doing an amazing job and is showing why he is the world champion. He and Lando were in a class apart from everyone else today. There was a big gap to third place and I think McLaren is doing a good job too: Lando is driving very well, but Max is still at the top“, has continued. “We still continue to win these hard-fought races by small margins, but when you run in front everything counts: pit stops, strategy, return laps, launch laps. It was a great performance from the team today. The Imola test? We wanted to race a different car to compare it to the current car. Max drove the car because he wanted this comparison compared to what the 2022 car did on the curbs of Imola compared to the 2024 car. Clearly you always learn in this job and as a comparison it was very interesting“.
#Spain #Horner #Verstappen #Norris #class
