Red Bull boss Christian Horner acknowledged that he ‘screamed’ at Max Verstappen’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, to pull him in for an early pit stop at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Verstappen and Lambiase disagreed on whether the Red Bull driver should pit when it started to rain; Verstappen thought it was preferable to stay outside at the time.
However, the Red Bull pit wall ignored the reigning world Champion and made sure he stopped on the second lap despite teammate Sergio Perez desperately trying to make up time on intermediate tyres.
In the early stages of the race at Zandvoort, Verstappen had hoped to continue running on slick tires despite the increasingly treacherous conditions. However, it wasn’t long before Lambiase instructed his driver to pit, with softs obviously the less favorable tyre to run on at that moment.
Verstappen’s engineer and confidant received unambiguous orders from Horner, who is thought to have intervened in the matter.
“Yeah, I’m screaming at his engineer at this point saying ‘GP, get him in!’” Horner told Channel 4 after the race when asked about the team radio discussion. “Of course, Checo, he went off at the first turn in those conditions, so that was why we pitted him and then the red flag came.
“He unfortunately clipped the pit entry, he was probably surfing at that point on the water and just triggered a breach of the [pit lane] speeding so [a] great, great shame for him not to be on the podium.”
Verstappen ultimately went on to win his ninth straight race, tying the all-time record set by 2013 Red Bull star Sebastian Vettel.
Horner, who oversaw the team when Vettel set that record, finds it hard to believe Verstappen has managed to match such a historic achievement.
“It’s unbelievable to think, doing it once with Sebastian was insane, to have matched it with Max, particularly after everything that’s been thrown at us today,” Horner added.
“I mean, he was just incredible today and I think that the whole team, the conditions, everything that we had to navigate, not just today but throughout the weekend.
“Eight pit stops the guys did in the pit lane today and a car repair for Checo along the way as well. So yeah, great performance.”
