20/04/2025 16:10
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner feels Max Verstappen still
faces "a hell of a fight" to secure victory in the Saudi Arabian
Grand Prix despite the four-time F1 champion lifting his team out
of "depression". Whilst practice times offer only a guide to
performance, the 0.845s deficit between Verstappen and pacesetter
Lando Norris in his McLaren at the end of FP3 indicated that Red
Bull was staring a considerable chasm to bridge. Switching from the
heat of the day and high track temperatures to the evening air and
cooler tarmac around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Verstappen again
delivered another stunning qualifying lap to land the 42nd pole
position of his career after Norris had crashed out early in Q3.
Assessing what unfolded, speaking to Sky Sports F1, Horner said:
"The engineers are continually looking to optimise the car. "And
yeah, I think the setup changes that we made definitely helped, and
it gave him a car that he felt he could really attack with. "But
when you look at the margin, I think we all came out of FP3 almost
slightly depressed looking and thinking, 'Christ, it's a battle to
be on the second row here'. "But that margin just disappeared, and
that can only be one of two things: either temperature or fuel
loads. So yeah, fantastic for Max and the team to get our second
pole of the year." Verstappen gives you "last ounce" Setting off
from the top spot on the grid affords Verstappen the advantage of
being in clean air should he keep Oscar Piastri at bay in the early
exchanges, with the Australian alongside the Dutchman on the front
row. Horner feels the McLaren driver represents Verstappen's
greatest threat to claiming a 65th career victory. "If you can
convert the pole, you've got the benefit of running in the clean
air and not being in the turbulence of a following car," added
Horner. "But what we've seen this weekend, the McLaren is very,
very quick, particularly in race trim. So I think we're going to
have a hell of a fight on our hands to try to keep Oscar behind us.
"But we're starting in the best possible position, so great to be
going into it on pole. Honestly I did not believe that was possible
going into that session. "But it just shows you never give up.
We've got a great team, and you keep fighting. You keep chasing the
performance, and then Max, he'll go and deliver you that last ounce
of performance."
