Red Bull boss Christian Horner said that "the most important thing" was that Charles Leclerc suffered nothing serious in a crash in France, praised Max Verstappen and admitted that he hoped to see Sergio Pérez on the podium
Red Bull got back to celebrating a victory in Formula 1 after a two-race hiatus on Sunday (24), when Max Verstappen took advantage of Charles Leclerc's retirement - who lost his car and hit the wall while leading - to take first place and head to victory in Paul Ricard. After the race, boss Christian Horner explained that the Taurinos had moved up their pitstops because they suffered less from their tires, and he also expressed his relief that the Monegasque didn't suffer anything more serious.
"It was practically two races. The main thing today is that Charles [Leclerc] is doing well. It was a close race between the two of them in that first stint, and an accident that looked ugly," said the Red Bull boss. "We pushed the button early to try the undercut, Max [Verstappen] had the [ideal] position on the track. It was a shame not to see it happen," he said.
It was the seventh win of the season for the reigning world champion, who opened an even bigger lead in the lead with the abandonment of his main challenger for the cup. On the other hand, Sergio Pérez did not manage to have a good weekend and finished fourth, which could have been third if not for the intervention of the virtual safety-car in the last laps - due to the withdrawal of Guanyu Zhou.
▶️ Get to know the GRAND PRIZE channel on Twitch by clicking here!
"Another win for Max, maximum points. It's frustrating not to have 'Czech' on the podium, it was unlucky that virtual safety-car," he lamented. "It was a great battle between the two [Verstappen and Leclerc], Max managed to follow him and the temperatures were under control," he stressed.
Finally, again on the strategy of bringing Verstappen's stop forward, Horner pointed out that Red Bull had fewer problems with the 18-rim Pirelli compounds than Ferrari, which was already seeing substantial blisters on Leclerc's car. So the Austrian team opted to call Max into the pits, but could not check whether the strategy would work as Charles stamped the wall.
"The wear looked good and we were not suffering from blisters [on the tires] as much as Ferrari, so that's why we opted for the aggressive stop," he explained. "It would have been interesting if Charles had stopped. I don't know if anything contributed to his crash, but he is a very strong driver. These two are pushing each other to the maximum, and the cars are at the limit today. Their bad luck is our good luck today," he said.