Max Verstappen doesn’t think the moment he had in F1 British GP was related to Oscar Piastri’s braking, as he and Christian Horner agree rear wing didn’t work in the conditions.
It worked on Saturday but with the weather like that on Sunday, the skinny rear wing didn’t work for Red Bull and Verstappen in F1 British GP at Silverstone. Even though he managed to maintain the lead at the start, he dropped behind the two McLaren drivers after handful of laps.
He got back on Lando Norris in the pits, but his race was undone when he spun at safety car re-start. He dropped to 11th and had to claw back into the Top 10 to finish fifth in the end. He felt the team made the right calls with the strategy in the grand prix, but the rear wing didn’t work in wet conditions.
The weather on Saturday forcasted less rain on Sunday, but overnight things changed and they knew it was day done for them mostly. “To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect,” said Verstappen to media. “But, it was just very difficult from lap one onwards. It was just a very difficult balance in the car between high speed and low speed. I couldn’t really find a good balance.
“Also on the inters, I think we’re degrading the tyres too much, especially compared to McLaren, they were again on a different level. And then I had, of course, my moment, which made everything a bit more difficult. But even when I was behind, like P10 or whatever I was in, I also didn’t really have the pace to move forward, which was a bit concerning.
“But then again, we made the right calls, stayed calm, stayed out as long as we could with the inters. And that was, again, the right call, so we ended up fifth, which I think, in hindsight, looking at it, is probably the best we could have done after all the things that happened during the race. The weather forecast overnight just changed a lot. Because up until yesterday, the weather was getting better.
“It was actually just raining a bit in the morning, and then it would be fine. And then last night, it just shifted into more severe rain. That can happen. It’s all set-up, I guess, also it’s just difficult to drive today. The rear wing, for sure, made everything a lot more complicated. Overall, I think even if we had, let’s say, a livable downforce on the car, we would not be fighting with McLaren, that’s for sure.”
Verstappen ruled out that Piastri’s braking behind the safety car resulted in his spin. It was simply cold tyres and unfortunate situation. Even though he clawed back to fifth, the Dutchman didn’t think beating McLaren was possible, irrespective of the weather condition.
“Not with that wing [that I can save the car from a spin],” continued Verstappen. “It’s unfortunately how it goes. I don’t think so [that my moment was related to Piastri braking]. I mean, I just tried to go on throttle, but the car has been really difficult already up until that point, we were just trying to find a nice rhythm.
“And it just caught me out on cold tyres. I have no idea [how we would have done if the race was mostly in dry conditions]. I mean, maybe a bit better. But if you look again at how the pace of the McLarens were today, I think that’s very hard to beat,” summed up Verstappen.
Team boss Horner noted that they went to Monza level of rear wing and they paid the price for it in wet conditions. He praised Verstappen’s recovery driving after the spin and also the team to be right with all the calls made, where some pitted on Lap 1 which made no sense to him.
How it was –
Horner: “Let’s start yesterday because we’re a bit more positive. We trimmed out the car basically to Monza levels of downforce and we’re able to obviously get a balance that enabled Max to get a fantastic pole position that matched Sebastian Vettel’s record and that was based on the forecast that we had that there might be a 20% chance of rain on Sunday morning, but they’re after dry conditions. And I don’t think any forecast that we certainly saw showed any chance that the rain was going to be that heavy and that late. So, lining up on the grid in the conditions it was, I thought Max had a super start, was able to feel his way around those first few laps but it was clear very early on that Oscar had quite an advantage pace-wise. And then again, as the tyres started to overheat as it was drying out, because it rained on part of the track and not on all of it, you could see where McLaren’s advantage, particularly on that tyre, was truly evident and they were miles ahead of the rest of the pack to the point that then the rain started, which was what we were trying to get to.
“The guys that had gone to slicks went too early and the track just wasn’t quite ready for it but it was clear that rain was coming in. And I felt we got the crossover time right, waiting for that rain. We were able to jump back past in the pits, past Lando, which then got Max back out into position and then thereafter the safety car came out. And yeah, that’s where the race started to unfold for us, unfortunately, where Oscar obviously did what he did on the brakes on the run up to Stowe. It put Max, first of all it caught him out as you’re preparing to take the restart, caught him out, completely unaware as to what was going on. So all your preparation, your switches, everything, you don’t manage to get in the right place. Oscar’s then gone, Max trying to go with him and obviously he’s had a half spin out of Stowe.”
Spin, recovery –
Horner: “I thought it was a very good catch from him, but slotted back effectively in 10th place behind Carlos. And once we were in the pack in that dirty air, in those wet conditions on the downforce level that we were running, you could see just how hard it was for him. But then as the circuit started to dry out, you could see the car starting to find more and more pace and he was able to pick his way through the cars ahead of him to recover to P5 at the end of the race as Lance Stroll started to fade on the soft tyres. So, yeah, a difficult race. Had the race been two hours later, it could have been a different outcome, but it would have been very tough to beat. I think the McLaren’s here today, but we certainly should have been on the podium.
“I think it just completely caught him out and then of course everything ends up in a rush and Oscar’s gone as well at that point. It wasn’t that he had the wrong settings. I need to go through with GP, but I just think he’s gathered it up and then Oscar’s gone and you’re trying to go with it. So that’s what definitely had him over. I think on a completely dry track, could have, should have, would have, definitely would have been on the podium. We’re on the podium. The McLaren’s were quick in race pace today and we always knew that was going to be tricky to beat them around here, but we have very good straight line speed. We weren’t really able to use it until the very end of the race.”
Getting strategy right –
Horner: “Yeah, I think it was important not to go too early. And then it was a question of which tyre you put on. The hard tyre last year was the tyre for the last in. I think as a team we called the pit stops at the right time today. I thought going on to the slicks was very risky at the start of the race. The cars that pulled in at the beginning, that seemed to make no sense. And then it was clear that the rain was coming. All the info that we had coming to the pit wall was that the rain was ten minutes away, eight minutes away. And it was a matter of making sure you survived to that rain. That would then be a new set of inters, so you didn’t want to make two pit stops.
“And then going from the inter to the slick, it seemed to take an age for the track to actually dry up. And as you say, getting that crossover, I think we timed it optimally to get him on the medium tyre for the end of the race. I think when you’re sliding like that in those conditions, you can see they were all going through the front left. They were basically coming back to a slick tyre. And as it came back to a slick, the pace sort of came back. It was very, very tricky. There are some very fast corners here, medium speed corners. If you don’t have the load on the car, it amplifies the complexity.”
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-british-grand-prix-verstappen-holds-off-piastri-at-the-start-to-lead-the-opening-lap.1836907254283884952
Here’s spin for Max Verstappen: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-british-grand-prix-verstappen-spins-on-race-restart-dropping-to-p10.1836910156431944561
Here’s Max Verstappen on Oscar Piastri’s penalty
Here’s how F1 British GP panned out
