Horner after Max's P2 in Jeddah: 'Max was getting the most out of the car'

Published on 20 April 2025 by Niels Hendrix

Christian Horner, CEO and team principal of Oracle Red Bull Racing, said after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, in which Max Verstappen finished second: “Firstly, congrats to Oscar on the win. Arguably without that penalty we would have won today, so there are a lot of positives to take, a lot of lessons and we know where we have to improve.”

Horner elaborates: “We believed Max was clearly ahead on the first lap and it was a very harsh decision but at that point it was best to concede, serve the penalty, get your head down and keep going. What was a great shame today was that you can see our pace was very similar to the McLaren and after the first stint on the medium we were in good shape. We pulled a gap to Oscar on the first stint and the pace was really there for Max. He was getting the most out of the car.”

Horner concluded: “Let’s not forget on Friday McLaren had 1.2 seconds on everybody. It was our most competitive race to date this season in terms of raw pace, but it wasn’t to be. Ultimately, they were good, important points today and we are only 12 points off the lead of the drivers’ championship and took a few points out of Lando, so we have everything to play for.”