Horner encourages Red Bull: “In Jeddah, we were faster than McLaren”

by Matteo Poletti

Despite missing out on the win, Christian Horner said he was encouraged by the performance at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where – according to him – Red Bull was faster than McLaren.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was full of praise for his team’s efforts at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, highlighting the impressive turnaround from a challenging Friday to securing pole position and fighting for the win on Sunday. Max Verstappen put together a stunning lap on Saturday to put his RB21 at the front of the grid, but it was the mechanics who worked something close to a miracle to turn the weekend around after a tough start—despite decent results on paper (third and sixth in FP2).

Horner encourages Red Bull: "In Jeddah, we were faster than McLaren"
Horner encourages Red Bull: “In Jeddah, we were faster than McLaren”

After the first day in Jeddah, Red Bull’s main issue was the long-run pace—an area where Verstappen ended up outperforming everyone else on Sunday. The victory slipped through his fingers only because of a 5-second penalty for cutting Turn 1 on the opening lap, but he still finished just 2.8 seconds behind Oscar Piastri, having closed the gap in the final stages of the race.

After a terribly lackluster weekend in Bahrain, Red Bull has reason to smile: they’re truly back in the fight at the front. “Let’s focus on the positives,” Horner told the official F1 website. “We finished second and had the right pace, whereas after Friday we thought McLaren would be a second quicker than the rest of the field.”

Horner encourages Red Bull: "In Jeddah, we were faster than McLaren"
Horner encourages Red Bull: “In Jeddah, we were faster than McLaren”

“We were strong on both the mediums and the hards—I’m sure the data will show we were quicker than McLaren,” Horner said. In fact, the race pace confirms it: Verstappen—Red Bull’s only car in the race after Tsunoda retired just a few corners in—was the fastest driver on average, ahead of Piastri, Norris, and Leclerc.

Dirty air, as always, played a key role. Verstappen lost time behind Piastri in the second stint, just as Piastri had been held up behind Verstappen in the first. Nevertheless, the fact that the reigning world champion was able to close the gap to the McLaren driver suggests that the two cars were at the very least evenly matched in Jeddah.

Horner encourages Red Bull: "In Jeddah, we were faster than McLaren"
Horner encourages Red Bull: “In Jeddah, we were faster than McLaren”

“Our engineers did a fantastic job, giving Max a car that was the most competitive we’ve had this year in both qualifying and the race,” Horner continued. “In terms of pure pace, we were able to pull away from the McLaren at the start. We’re closing in on them, and we’re just 2 points behind Lando and 12 behind Oscar—that’s encouraging for us,” he added. .

“Obviously, we’re all very disappointed with the race result. We felt we had what it takes to beat McLaren, but we’ll take what we got, focus on the positives, and already look ahead to Miami,” Horner said. A track where, with the high temperatures, McLaren is expected to perform well—but then again, it was hot in Jeddah too…

Photo: Oracle Red Bull Racing on X

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