Max Verstappen is certain Red Bull did not miss an opportunity to win the Australian Grand Prix, after finishing the race a close second.
He briefly took the lead of the race when eventual winner Lando Norris pitted before him during a rain shower to switch from slicks to intermediate tyres. Verstappen eventually did the same and rejoined the track back behind the McLaren driver.After the race Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told Verstappen there was nothing the team could have done to get him ahead of Norris. “Even if we’d stopped a lap earlier on those slicks we still wouldn’t have got track position so it was worth a gamble,” he said.
Verstappen said the team did the right thing by trying to vary their strategy from McLaren’s at that point in the race.
“We tried something else, it was about to work out, but I can’t see the radar, of course, of how the weather is moving in,” he told the official F1 channel.
“But even if we would have pitted with them a lap later or the lap that I pitted, it would have always been P2 anyway. So it didn’t really matter, but it was fun to try and do something different.”
He moved up to second place immediately after the start by passing Oscar Piastri, who started second. However when the rain first fell Verstappen ran wide at turn 11, losing the position to Piastri, then fell around 10 seconds behind the McLaren drivers until the rain eased again.
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“The start was fun,” he said. “After that, I think I tried to stay with the McLarens but like basically every other team we just degged too hard and we overheated our tyres and then the McLarens just take off.
“I gave it my all, but then of course at one point, they really just took off and I tried to just focus on my own race. But then, of course, the weather just started to play up again and it was very difficult out there with the slicks when it started to rain.”
Verstappen believes McLaren’s pace in dry conditions shows they will be hard to beat in next weekend’s race as well. “The gap is big, I know that,” he said. “That is not going to disappear from here to the next race.
“But we have to try and stay close. Also on days like today, normally you are P3, we are P2, so that’s good.”
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BasCB (@bascb)
16th March 2025, 8:32
I would agree, yes. It was clear that his inters went off earlier than for the McLarens, and they did not gain, nor really lose anything from the extra lap on slicks (sure, probably mostly due to max being able to make that lap work as well as he did). They were behind and a tad slower, so the best he could hope for was something going wrong or getting lucky with the weather.
Still, good to see them give it a good go and we got some nice racing at the front.
Patrick (@paeschli)
16th March 2025, 11:03
Wouldn’t he have come out before Norris if he had pitted a lap earlier?
BasCB (@bascb)
16th March 2025, 11:24
Norris was ahead of him when Norris pitted and i’m pretty sure Norris did not lose time to Max on his outlap.
Riccard
17th March 2025, 18:38
If Norris had stayed out then Verstappen would probably have overtaken him through the start/finish line (because Norris had very little speed following his excursion).
But because Norris had gone down the pit… if Verstappen had followed, he would have been stuck behind Norris on the pit speed limiter.
Norris made the right move, so Verstappen had little chance to gain either way.
Osnola
16th March 2025, 11:29
At the moment the mclaren is a league on its own. Not sure if this performance gap can be bridged on time.
But a nice start of the season.
Except for the really embarrasing team order by mcl. Still they seem to be able to stain the greatest victory…
Edvaldo
16th March 2025, 15:54
The thing with Max is that he doesn’t crash, he keeps it in there. Rule number one in eventful races.
No, he had no business winning this race, yet, due to how the game is played these days, and he’s a master at it, almost did it, just like he almost did it in Britain last year.
Apart from Norris, who went for inters because he almost crashed, Red Bull made the best call calling him in at the right time, some teams followed suit, while others tried their own thing (ahem, Ferrari).
An Sionnach
16th March 2025, 21:51
Max did well to not lose more time and keep himself up there. After this race and Brasil, teams shouldn’t stay out when Max needs inters without a very good reason.