Red Bull is certain that Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen would have won the Canadian Grand Prix even without the safety car phase at the end of the race.
Until then, Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz was in the lead, who, unlike the Dutchman, might have opted for a one-stop strategy, so that Verstappen would have had to overtake him on the track.
As a result of Yuki Tsunoda’s departure, Ferrari used the safety car phase to bring the Spaniard in for a second time as well. As a result, however, Sainz fell behind the Red Bull driver and was unable to overtake him despite fresher tires.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is certain that his protégé would have won the race if the safety car hadn’t come and Sainz had stuck to his one-stop strategy.
Christian Horner: Verstappen would have overtaken ten laps before the end
“It was very difficult with the first virtual safety car because we had a bit of graining,” says Horner. “That’s why we went into the pits. And so it was clear that we had to switch to two stops. So it would have been interesting to see how that would have turned out, because Carlos was committed to one stop.”
“All the measurement data we have shows that he would have caught and overtaken him about ten laps before the end,” said the Red Bull team boss. Verstappen switched to new hard tires six laps before the safety car period, falling twelve seconds behind Sainz. By the time Tsunoda crashed, he had reduced the gap to 7.5 seconds.
“We pitted under normal racing conditions and he was starting to catch up. So it would have been interesting to see what tire wear Carlos would have had. The key thing was to get into the safety car window within those laps, otherwise Carlos would have a vacancy stop and would have stayed in front”, analyzes Horner.
Top speed advantage saves Max Verstappen
When the safety car came back into the pits it was a close battle between Red Bull and Ferrari. Sainz was able to put on the pressure with his slightly fresher tires and stayed in Verstappen’s DRS window until the end. The fact that there was no attack was also due to the top speed advantage of the RB18, so that the Spaniard had trouble closing the gap on the straight.
“The first sector and the traction out of turn ten was crucial. Er [Sainz] could never get closer than 0.7 seconds, but at the same time, Max couldn’t break the magic barrier of one second,” says Horner.
“The Ferrari was just really strong over the curbs where they could pick up a lot more speed. And that’s where you just stay in the game with the three DRS zones,” adds the Red Bull team boss.
Christian Horner: “Verstappen is incredibly good under pressure”
It was also crucial for the Red Bull victory that Verstappen made no mistakes despite the great pressure from behind. “He drove outstanding races under massive pressure last season, if you think back to Austin, for example,” says Horner.
Also, his radio stopped working at the end of the race, making it even more difficult for the Dutchman to select the right engine mode at the right time to keep Sainz behind.
“There was only one-way traffic between GPs [Gianpiero Lambiase, Verstappens Renningenieur] and Max. Nothing came out of the car. Turns out the radio wasn’t working. He could hear us, but we couldn’t hear him,” says Horner.
Verstappen was still able to win the race and thus proved his class. “He’s just incredibly good under pressure and we’ve seen that this year too, like in Miami or Baku. He also has more experience now and is generally a very complete driver,” said Horner.
“Although the results show that we’ve won a lot of races this year, there have also been some absolute stressful ones. I think this weekend Max was in top form. He was fastest in pretty much every session and also took pole position. “