Max Verstappen wins in Suzuka despite inferior car – Red Bull team boss Christian Horner speaks of one of the best weekends of his career
A weekend to remember: Max Verstappen won the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix in a car that Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said was “literally turned upside down”. What sounds like an underdog victory on paper was in reality the result of hard work, perfect tuning and top-class driving.
Horner was full of praise for his star driver after the race – and spoke of one of the best weekends that Verstappen has ever experienced in Formula 1. “I think this was one of Max’s best weekends ever,” said the Briton in Suzuka.
“We completely turned the car around in terms of set-up. He worked extremely closely with the engineers. Finally, in Q3, we were able to provide him with a car that allowed him to drive this sensational lap. And [on Sunday] he converted it into a hard-fought but well-deserved victory in a direct duel.”
For Horner, the significance of this success is unmistakable: “There is no better tonic, no greater motivation than a victory – and that’s exactly what we’ve achieved this weekend. The entire team in Milton Keynes deserves it. And Max, this man is like a motivator on wheels.”
Horner: “On Friday, we were still completely beside ourselves”
Particularly impressive: Verstappen’s lap in Q3, with which he beat the strong competition from McLaren despite theoretically inferior material. “If you look at the overlays with Lando, you can see that they were absolutely even. It was nuances. Lando was strong in turn six, Max in the first Degner. The difference came in the last chicane – and Max just got it perfectly,” said Horner.
The fact that the Red Bull car was not the favorite on paper only serves to underscore the performance even more. “Theoretically, McLaren was ahead. But Max just got everything out of it. That was the difference.” If both McLarens had combined their best sectors, there would have been a papaya double pole in the order Piastri-Norris.
But the path for Red Bull was anything but a sure thing. Horner describes how far the team still was from a competitive base on Friday. “At the start of the weekend, we looked like we were completely off track. But the team brought the car into a working window – and Max then showed why the number one is on his car.”
Even in the race itself, not everything went smoothly. At a pit stop, the team missed a planned front wing adjustment, which caused more understeer than planned. But even that couldn’t slow Verstappen down: “With the help of the performance engineer and a few adjustments [to the steering wheel] during the race, we were able to compensate for that to some extent,” said Horner.
Fight against McLaren: Horner speculates on new front wing rules
With the victory in Japan, Verstappen reduced the gap in the drivers’ championship to just one point behind Lando Norris. “For us, it’s clear: the focus is on the drivers‘ title. The constructors’ title will be harder, but we’ll never give up. It’s a long year,” says the Red Bull team principal.
An additional unknown could soon shift the balance of power further: the upcoming rule change to the front wing, which is to take effect from the ninth race in Spain. Horner says: ”How this will affect the various cars is completely open. But we know what we have to work on – and that the development rate this year will be crucial.”
“This year is a marathon. If we have learned anything from last year, it’s that things can change very quickly. There is very little between the top teams. It’s about seizing opportunities – and that’s what we did this weekend. It was exactly the moment the team needed. The right answer at the right time.”
