Why Red Bull asked Verstappen to let Russell through – and put him on hard tyres

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner refused to be drawn on Max Verstappen’s controversial Turn 5 collision with Russell at the Spanish Grand Prix, as he hadn’t spoken to his driver yet when he addressed the Formula 1 media. But Horner did offer an explanation of two crucial events that led to Verstappen’s frustration boiling over.

Verstappen finished 10th at Barcelona after looking on for a podium finish behind the superior McLarens, until a late safety car restart saw him passed by Charles Leclerc before being jumped by George Russell into Turn 1. Verstappen kept the position by going off, with Red Bull suggesting he give the position back to avoid a penalty as it felt Russell was ahead. The Dutchman then saw red mist, appearing to give the position back into Turn 5 before accelerating and lunging into the side of Russell’s car.

That landed him a 10-second penalty anyway, as well as three penalty points that mean he is one transgression away from a race ban over the next two race weekends, until he next loses two penalty points on 30 June.

After largely refusing to talk about the incident on Sunday, Verstappen commented on his social media the following morning: “Our tyre choice to the end and some moves after the safety car restart fuelled my frustration, leading to a move that was not right and shouldn’t have happened.”

The first major trigger was Red Bull’s decision to bring Verstappen in under the late safety car and put him on the hard tyres to his dismay. It meant Verstappen would have to race against cars on softer tyres on the final six laps.

Verstappen nearly crashed coming out of the final corner on the restart, which first allowed Leclerc past and then gave Russell a window to attack him too. Horner explained that because of Red Bull’s aggressive three-stop strategy Verstappen didn’t have any other tyres left, other than a set of softs with the same mileage as the set he was on at the time.

“The safety car came out at probably the worst possible time in terms of our strategy, because you’re faced with the choice of – do you stay out on an eight-lap old, heavily pushed soft tyre, at which point you would get eaten up at the restart, and it looked like there would be circa 10 racing laps left,” Horner said.

“Unfortunately, the only set of tyres that we had available was a new set of hards. Our feeling was that a new set of hards was better than an eight-lap-old, heavily degraded set of softs. You don’t want to stay on that set of tyres because you know everybody else has taken a fresh set.”

Would Verstappen have fared better if he had stayed out on his eight-lap old softs after all? “In 20/20 hindsight, you’d have left him out,” Horner replied. “He would have got passed by the two McLarens. Would he have got passed by Leclerc? You never know. You make a decision with the information you have at hand. The risk with going onto the three-stop is that in a safety car scenario, in the last third of the race or quarter of the race, you’re exposed.”

The unsuitable hard tyres did mean that Verstappen was a sitting duck while desperately getting them up to temperature. That triggered Russell’s move into Turn 1, who suffered a snap that made him drift wide and send Verstappen into the runoff. Red Bull suggested to Verstappen to give up the position as it felt Russell was ahead at the apex per the current racing guidelines, which led to Verstappen’s simmering frustration boiling over in Turn 5.

It soon turned out it was all for nothing, as the stewards noted Verstappen didn’t even have to give the position back because Russell wasn’t fully in control of his car when he tried to pass the Red Bull. Red Bull took the safe route, perhaps realising Russell was going to get past anyway, but ironically it trying to avoid a 10-second penalty for Max led to the driver earning himself one.

“It was very, very marginal,” Horner said. “It looked for all intents and purposes that it was going to be a penalty, so therefore the instruction was given to Max to give that place back, which he was obviously upset and annoyed about because he felt that, one, he’d been left no space and, two, that George hadn’t been fully in control.

Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

“It’s very hard for the team to try and make that call because you’re going on historical precedents. You’re trying to pre-empt what the stewards and the race directors are thinking. So, I think it would be beneficial to the teams, in that instance, for the race director to make that call and say you either give it back or you get a penalty, rather than having to try and second-guess what the stewards are going to think.

“Max was obviously upset because, first of all, he’s had Leclerc take a swipe at him on the straight. And then he’s got dive-bombed at Turn 1 by George. And the way that these regulations are now, it’s all about where that front axle is.

“We’ve seen so many occasions this year where penalties have been given. We’ve seen it been noted. We’ve seen it gone to the stewards. The next thing is, you’re expecting to get a penalty. So that’s why it was: ‘OK, you know what? We’re going to have to give this place up.'”