This Sunday, Sergio Pérez achieved an unexpected victory on the streets of the Principality of Monaco, after having started in third position.
The Mexican overtook the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc with a good pitstop strategy on a drying track, then tended to his dry tires in the closing laps when they began to grain .
His teammate, Max Verstappen, went from fourth on the grid to third at the checkered flag, overtaking poleman Leclerc.
Horner said the team had responded well to the difficult conditions created by the weather at the time of the start.
“We have always prided ourselves on being a team that attacks in the race,” he said. “And we’ve always focused on trying to get the basics right, whether it’s strategy, whether it’s pit stops, reacting quickly and well [to whatever happens], and I think today was about that and reacting to the situation that happens around you.”
“And I think the whole team has responded brilliantly, and the drivers of course had to do their part.”
Horner stressed that the key to Perez’s success was judging the move from wet to intermediates, and then to slicks.
“It was an incredible race,” he noted. “We knew there was some rain near [the track], but I don’t think we expected it to be tropical early in the race. It was a bit chaotic with the delays, tires coming onto the grid, off the grid, on the grid. “.
“But with the amount of rain that fell, it would have been impossible to race in those conditions.”
“So once the race finally got going, [the key] was always going to be the move [to dry tires], and getting that moment right. And obviously we went from the extremes, to the intermediates. , to the slicks, and today we got those calls right.”
“And the pit wall did a great job, the strategists, particularly the guys in the pitlane, had to do the double stops today and of course Checo, his performance, on the entry lap [to the pits], on the out lap, particularly on the intermediate tyres, it was impressive,” explained Horner, praising his team’s work.
“And then also with the dry tyres, and then obviously he had to manage the rest until the end.”
Asked if Red Bull had won the race or Ferrari had lost it through strategic decisions, Horner admitted it was a bit of both.
“Of course we had to go out and win it. But we also took advantage of the mistakes that were made, the circumstances were the same for everyone and it was very tight between the two teams.”
“In the first couple of laps it looked like Charles [Leclerc] had things pretty well under control, he had a cushion of time on his teammate [who was] behind him as well.”
“At the time, it looked like Ferrari had the race in their pocket, but I think we reacted very well to the conditions and got the [tyre type] changes right, the double pitstop, etcetera, etcetera, it all worked out very well for us.” .
“We were debating whether to go straight from the extreme to the dry, as we saw with Lewis [Hamilton], when he hurt us a few years ago with Daniel [Ricciardo], but we decided it was a quicker route to go from the intermediate to the dry tyre.
“And the power off the lap was huge. And I think Checo nailed it.”
