Horner explains why Red Bull ‘rolled the dice’ with Verstappen strategy in Monaco as he reflects on ‘jeopardy’ of race
Published: May 23, 2025
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Christian Horner has admitted that Red Bull “rolled the dice” with an offset strategy for Max Verstappen during the Monaco Grand Prix, with the team extending the Dutchman’s final stint before making a compulsory second stop on the penultimate lap amid the “jeopardy” posed by the new regulation.
After lining up in fourth place on the grid – having been promoted one spot owing to Lewis Hamilton’s three-place penalty – Verstappen ran a long opening stint on the hard tyre before bolting on the medium compound.
And while others were making a second visit to the pits – as part of a regulation change that required every driver to make two pit stops during the race in Monte Carlo – the World Champion remained out on track for as long as possible, meaning that he led the race for much of the latter stages before finally heading to the pits on the penultimate lap of the event.
This saw Verstappen cross the line in fourth – with McLaren’s Lando Norris taking victory ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and the other papaya car of Oscar Piastri – and Horner believes that the plan was the best call should there have been any incidents during the closing stages of the Grand Prix.
“We rolled the dice a little bit today,” Horner explained after the race. “Starting on the hard [tyre] our tactic was always to go long, with the main opportunity being Safety Cars or red flags, which can sometimes be the case here.
And while others were making a second visit to the pits – as part of a regulation change that required every driver to make two pit stops during the race in Monte Carlo – the World Champion remained out on track for as long as possible, meaning that he led the race for much of the latter stages before finally heading to the pits on the penultimate lap of the event.
This saw Verstappen cross the line in fourth – with McLaren’s Lando Norris taking victory ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and the other papaya car of Oscar Piastri – and Horner believes that the plan was the best call should there have been any incidents during the closing stages of the Grand Prix.
“We rolled the dice a little bit today,” Horner explained after the race. “Starting on the hard [tyre] our tactic was always to go long, with the main opportunity being Safety Cars or red flags, which can sometimes be the case here.
“Max led large portions of the race, but it was one of those Monacos where everybody pretty much behaved. So, yeah, the first stop, we got pretty close to Oscar at one point. He had a wobble on his second lap out after his pit stop but we would have been at best alongside, so we decided, look, we'll keep going, let's keep going.
“The upside was, if there'd have been a Safety Car or red flag, Max would have led. Then, again, we had the medium tyre [for the second stint], went very, very long, obviously stopped on the last lap, and again, you're just hanging out for a Safety Car or VSC [Virtual Safety Car] or red flag at that point.”
Reflecting on the strategy of Verstappen’s team mate Yuki Tsunoda – who started from P12 on the grid and ended the race down in P17 – Horner added: “For Yuki, we did the inverse – Lap 1 initially looked like he would get a significant benefit from it, but then everybody started to drive extremely slowly as they started to play around with the tactics.
“So he was basically on the same set of tyres for the whole race and did his fastest laps at the end there when he finally got some clear traffic. He was just sat in a queue the entire race, so a very difficult day today.”
In terms of how much the two pit stop rule affected the action of the race, Horner commented: “It was strategically more interesting [than last year]. There was more jeopardy to it.”
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