Christian Horner, CEO and Team Principal of Red Bull Racing, has praised Max Verstappen’s excellent performance at the 2025 F1 Japanese GP. Verstappen stunned the paddock in Saturday’s Qualifying at Suzuka, stealing pole position from McLaren’s Lando Norris against the odds. The four-time world champion enjoyed a similarly impressive race, finding an answer to Lando’s Norris every move. Verstappen ultimately crossed the line first to claim his first win of 2025.
Verstappen had an “incredible” race at Suzuka
Speaking to the media after Sunday’s race, Horner described the reigning world champion’s race as “incredible”, though he admitted that most of the “hard work” had been done during qualifying as there had been little overtaking during the race.
“What a great race, an incredible race for Max, great for the team.”
“I think the majority of the hard work was done yesterday. When you look at [it], I guess, 90% of the cars finished in the order that they started in. But it was a straight, it was a flat-out sprint race today, there was very low degradation.”
Horner also praised Verstappen’s precision, claiming that Verstappen had “made not a single mistake” though the 53 laps, despite the “two very fast McLarens” on his tail.
“We know the McLarens are very, very fast and it needed Max to be inch perfect. With two very fast McLarens right behind him and for 53 laps he made not a single mistake, and had the pace to cover them, keep them out of his DRS.”
Horner especially commended Verstappen’s performane in Turn 11, noting this his performance there, had been vital to his victory at the Japanese GP.
“He was particularly strong in Turn 11 in the last corner to keep that vital second gap and had enough to cover whatever they could throw at us today.”
Verstappen’s “huge win” at Japanese GP an “injection of motivation” for Red Bull
Overall, Horner described Verstappen’s Japanese GP success as “a huge win” which ultimately served as a tribute to Red Bull’s partnership with Honda. The Red Bull Team Principal hopes that this will also provide an “injection of motivation” into the Milton Keynes-based team.
“A huge win, particularly here in Japan, running the car in a Honda livery. And thanks to the partnership that we’ve enjoyed so far with Honda.”
But, you know, there’s no bigger motivator than winning. And so the injection of motivation that they sort of provided to the whole team is fantastic.”
“We stuck to our guns”—Horner on Red Bull’s pitstop strategy
With little overtaking, many, including some drivers, have described the 2025 Japanese GP as boring. However, there was one notable incident which drew the attention and amusement of fans. During the pitstop sequence, McLaren, in an attempt to undercut race leader Verstappen, called Norris, their leading driver in for his tyre change.
Red Bull responded shortly after, also calling Verstappen in for his tyre change. This resulted in Verstappen and Norris emerging side-by-side at the exit of the pit lane. Norris would ultimately lose the resulting battle. Verstappen held position, forcing Norris onto the grass. This cost the McLaren driver valuable time and drew complaints from both involved.
While speaking to the media after the Japanese GP race, Horner discussed Red Bull’s approach to Verstappen’s pitstop. He denied having been influenced by McLaren’s “dummy” call to Norris, instead insisting that Red Bull had “stuck to their guns.” He did, however, admit that the team, had assessed how they would go about covering Norris, once it had become clear what McLaren’s intended strategy was.
“I think it was clear that pit stops were approaching. McLaren elected to pit Oscar first. But prior to that they called a dummy with Lando that really to us didn’t make any sense, because it would just come out in traffic. So we stuck to our guns. We didn’t react to the dummy.”
“They then pitted Oscar and it was clear that they were going to pit Lando the following lap. So it was then a matter of covering Lando.”
Red Bull did not have “a totally clean pit stop” despite emerging ahead of Norris
While Verstappen did ultimately emerge ahead of Norris after their pitstops, Horner admitted that it had been a close call. He explained that Red Bull had not managed to have an ideal pit stop with Verstappen, due to missing usual members on their crew.
We didn’t have a totally clean pit stop. We got a reserve crew with two members missing this weekend. And Lando got close-ish at the pit exit but he never looked alongside or anything like that.”
Despite this, Horner insisted that Verstappen had stayed ahead of Norris, throughout the race, though he acknowledged the impressive pace of both McLarens.
“And thereafter on the hard tyre for 30-odd laps, Max had the pace to cover whatever McLaren could throw at us. And at different times, one minute was Lando, the next minute Oscar looked very quick. But as you could see, overtaking throughout the field was almost negligible.”
McLaren “have two drivers that are fighting for the Drivers’ Championship”
Though both Norris and Piastri exhibited strong pace throughout the Japanese GP, a somewhat contentious moment arose when McLaren did not permit Piastri from passing Norris despite the Australian driver claiming to be the faster of the two. Horner was asked about this moment, and stated that McLaren’s had decided to let their drivers race, despite both being potential contenders for the title. Decisions like that in Suzuka, Horner said, were part of the compromise that came with such an appoach to the season.
“I guess the problem they have is they have two drivers that are fighting for the Drivers’ Championship. I guess the difficulty they have is that they’ve made a bed where they’re going to let them race. So that’s the compromise that inevitably comes with that.”
Red Bull “turned the car upside down” to give help Verstappen to Japanese GP win
While Horner acknowledged that McLaren’s attempt at undercutting Verstappen had been “reasonably powerful”, he insisted on praising his own driver’s performance and the hard work that Red Bull had done to get the RB21 ready for the Japanese GP.
“The undercut was reasonably powerful. Could have, should have, would have, I’m sure, up and down the pit lane. I think that’s one of Max’s best weekends that he’s had.”
“We literally turned the car upside down set-up-wise. He’s worked very hard with the engineering team. Finally we were able to give him a car that he could make use of in Q3 yesterday with the most stunning lap. And then convert that today in a hard-fought victory, in a straight fight.”
Red Bull leave Japen motivated but with “plenty of work to do”
With Verstappen now only a point behind Norris in the 2025 World Drivers’ Championship, Horner stated that Red Bull leaves Japan with “huge motivation” going into the upcoming races, despite there still being “plenty of work” needed to improve their competitiveness.
“Puts him one point behind in the Drivers’ Championship. So we leave Japan still with plenty of work to do but huge motivation.”
Verstappen was Red Bull’s best asset in Suzuka
With Red Bull having improved considerably over the Japanese GP weekend, Horner was asked whether the team had experienced issues with the simulations. While Horner acknowledged that such concerns were common, he explained that the team’s best asset in Suzuka had been Verstappen, who had capitalised on the work done by the team to prepare his RB21.
Inevitably those questions always get asked. The biggest sense that you have in the car is the driver. And I think all credit to the team this weekend.”
“At the beginning of the weekend we looked like we were out the window. We managed to get the car into a decent window, and then Max Verstappen demonstrated why he’s got the number one on the car.”
He highlighted Verstappen’s excellent qualifying lap as an example of the Dutchman’s prowress behind the wheel, noting that while Verstappen and Norris had been “neck and neck”, Verstappen’s had made the difference at the last chicane, despite Norris having the theoretically faster MCL39.”
“I think that it was absolutely inch perfect. If you look at the overlays between him and Lando, you can see that they’re absolutely neck and neck. There’s tiny bits in it. Lando was good in Turn 6. Max was very strong in Degner 1. In Turn 11 Max again was strong there. Lando a little bit better in Spoon.”
“But the differentiator at the end of it came down to the last chicane. And he absolutely nailed the last chicane and that was just enough. But it was in a car that the theoreticals were behind McLaren as fast as that.”
“Max extracted every ounce of performance,” Horner concluded, “McLaren didn’t get that, obviously, yesterday. So that was the difference.”
Co-Author: Karishma Persad
