Horner after Spanish GP: 'Hindsight is always 20/20'

Published on 01 June 2025 by Niels Hendrix

Christian Horner, CEO and team principal of Oracle Red Bull Racing, said after the Spanish Grand Prix: “From the way the race was panning out, we elected to take a three stop approach and we committed to that pretty early on. The pace advantage and the tyre advantage that the McLarens’ had in a straight fight meant that we took the gamble. We took the first stop early on and McLaren committed to a two stop, and our strategy was looking like it was on track to be the quickest approach.”

Horner continued: “We went for the potential undercut with Max, but he then had used all of his soft and medium compounds. The safety car came out at the worst possible time for our strategy and we decided between staying out on older tyres and be exposed at the restart, or take the gamble with the new set of hard tyres. Hindsight is always 20/20, but we made the best decision at the time with the information we had.”

“There was then contact with George that the stewards deemed an incident and resulted in a penalty. It’s something we will discuss internally and look at further. It’s a frustrating result as it was looking to be an easy podium for Max today.”