Christian Horner, over a week after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, provides an explanation for Red Bull’s decision not to let Oscar Piastri pass Max Verstappen. The team boss still stands by that decision in Jeddah, despite the five-second time penalty it incurred.
Max Verstappen started the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from pole position. Oscar Piastri, who started from P2, was alongside the Dutchman at the first corner. The Red Bull driver saw no other option but to drive over the runoff area. As a result, he maintained his position but was given a five-second time penalty.
Christian Horner, who refers to the incident as ‘marginal’, now explains why Red Bull decided that Verstappen should not relinquish the lead to the McLaren driver. “Of course it’s frustrating,” he begins his story on the BBC’s The Inside Talk podcast. “We chose at the time not to give back the position because it would have put us under pressure from the cars behind. Moreover, the advantage of clean air should never be underestimated.”
‘Overtaking is so difficult’
Although the decision to keep Verstappen in clean air protected the 64-time Grand Prix winner from the threat of George Russell and Charles Leclerc behind him, Horner does not believe his driver could have increased his number of victories if the position had been given up. “No,” the 51-year-old Red Bull team boss is clear in his judgement. “Overtaking on that circuit, as you saw, is so difficult. If you’re in dirty air and get close, especially in that incredibly fast first sector, there would have been no chance,” adds the Brit.
Horner also points out the positives that can be taken from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. “In the first stint we were able to pull away and in the second stint we had a deficit of 4.8 seconds when we left the pit lane and ended the race with a 2.8 second deficit to Oscar,” he says. “The fact that we had the upper hand on the McLarens on race day was, I believe, the first time this year. So we had the pace to win the race outright,” he concludes.
