Christian Horner has shared his insights about the RB21 and how Red Bull executed the race weekend at the F1 Japanese GP, with Max Verstappen securing their first victory of the 2025 season.
The Dutchman executed a flawless drive, holding off the rapid McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and converted his stunning pole position to victory at Suzuka for the fourth time in a row.
Radical set-up change key to Verstappen’s pole position and subsequent victory
Speaking in a post-race print media session, Horner hailed the 2025 F1 Japanese GP weekend as one of the best race weekends Verstappen has ever had in his career.
Although their single-seater seemed incapable of challenging the McLarens on Friday, the Milton Keynes outfit successfully turned things around before qualifying.
Horner highlighted how Verstappen had worked with the engineers in tandem and explained that they made radical changes to the RB21’s set-up in order for the 27-year-old to extract more lap time in the final segment of qualifying for the Japanese GP.
Noting that his victory at Suzuka wasn’t an effortless one, with the two McLaren drivers chasing Verstappen in the closing stages of the race, Horner commented that they are leaving Japan in high spirits despite the momentous task of supporting the Dutchman in the championship battle lying ahead.
“I think that’s one of Max’s [Verstappen] best weekends that he’s had.
“We literally turned the car upside down set-up-wise. He’s worked very hard with the engineering team. Finally we were able to give him a car that he could make use of in Q3 yesterday with the most stunning lap.
“And then convert that today in a hard-fought victory, in a straight fight. Puts him one point behind in the Drivers’ Championship. So yeah, we leave Japan still with plenty of work to do but huge motivation.”
Horner refuses to clarify whether Red Bull have correlation issues
In terms of Red Bull often arriving with a car that’s a long way off and eventually honing it through the race weekend, Horner was asked if this persistent challenge is indicative of correlation issues between their simulator data and on-track performance.
The 51-year-old, however, wasn’t very forthcoming about the details. Merely stating that the driver is their only point of reference in this regard, Horner once again commended the team for bringing the RB21 back into the right operational window and Verstappen for his commanding drive on Sunday at the F1 Japanese GP.
“Inevitably those questions always get asked and the biggest sense that you have in the car is the driver.
“And I think all credit to the team this weekend. At the beginning of the weekend we looked like we were out the window. We managed to get the car into a decent window.
“And then Max Verstappen demonstrated why he’s got the number one on the car.”
Execution of last chicane set Verstappen’s final Q3 lap apart from Norris’s
In terms of how special Verstappen’s last flying lap in qualifying was, Horner described it as inch-perfect and emphasised that the Dutchman clinched the pole position in the RB21, whose ideal lap time was slower than the McLarens’ on paper.
Furthermore, Horner elaborated that the Red Bull driver made the crucial difference at the last chicane in comparison to Norris, who failed to maximise the potential of the mighty MCL39 during the F1 Japanese GP weekend.
“I think that it was absolutely inch-perfect.
“If you look at the overlays between him and Lando [Norris], you can see that they’re absolutely neck and neck.
“There’s tiny bits in it. Lando was good in Turn 6. Max was very strong in Degner 1. In Turn 11, Max again was strong there. Lando was a little bit better in Spoon.
“But the differentiator at the end of it came down to the last chicane. And he [Verstappen] absolutely nailed the last chicane and that was just enough. But it was in a car that the theoreticals were behind McLaren’s fastest lap.
“Max extracted every ounce of performance. McLaren didn’t get that obviously yesterday. So that was the difference.”
Horner believes Verstappen is the best driver on the grid
Red Bull turned the car upside down a few times over the weekend until they found a working window. With regard to whether there’s a possibility of truncating the process moving forward, Horner implied that they would be able to identify the right set-ups quicker in the near future as they gain more understanding of the tricky RB21 with each race weekend.
Highlighting the significance of hard work and perseverance, Horner reiterated that Verstappen has once again demonstrated his calibre and why he is the best driver on the F1 grid after his imposing victory at the Japanese GP.
“Inevitably; you’re always learning.
“We’ve been [experimenting with] ride heights, weight distributions, wing levels, roll bars. Almost every adjustment on the car, we’ve been through this weekend and it just demonstrates if you keep working hard and you never give up anything is possible.
“Max has been stunning this weekend and demonstrated once again why I think he’s the best driver on the grid.”
