Max Verstappen explains the move on Lap 1 which won him F1 Imola GP which Oscar Piastri praise him for, as Christian Horner and Andrea Stella expands on performance.
There is no denying that Red Bull’s Verstappen would go all out on Lap 1 in order to try and take the lead, whether or not he can maintain it in the long run. The idea always is to push as much and that’s what he did in F1 Imola GP after making a bold move stick on McLaren’s Piastri.
Even though George Russell seemingly had a better start, he was stuck behind Piastri into Turn 2. In a bid to keep the Brit behind, the outside was open area for Verstappen to pounce. The McLaren braked slightly early which allowed the Dutchman take the apex and the corner to shoot himself in the lead.
In hindsight, Piastri would have braked 10m later to retain the lead – although, he wasn’t sure if he would have kept it for long considering the pace of Red Bull. Verstappen looked much better to stretch a good lead. The Australian was forced onto a potential two-stop after degradation.
Both Verstappen and Lando Norris stuck to Plan A of one-stop. The safety car intervention did help Piastri in some ways to bunch the field, but the Dutchman still had good pace to create a gap between him and both the McLaren drivers. The Australian lost second to teammate Norris in the end.
Red Bull chief Horner believes Red Bull found some pace on Saturday with the set-up they had. It allowed Verstappen to work freely coupled with the nature of the track which suited their car more. These factors didn’t help McLaren as Stella suggested. He defended the strategy call.
But he also conceded that the hard tyre didn’t perform as per their expectations which made things tricky for Piastri. The situation at the re-start between McLaren teammates was discussed pre-race and they followed the rule set, where the team got the result which was possible at that time.
Race eventually –
Verstappen: “Yeah, the initial start wasn’t that amazing, but then Turn 2, luckily, worked out quite well for me. So I was, of course, happy to be in the lead, but I was still not entirely sure how quick we were going to be because, of course, I was also in the lead in Miami, but we did not have a great pace there. So, I just tried to follow a bit my rhythm. I do think the car felt a bit nicer, a bit more controlled to drive now also in the long run, and that helped me, I think, also then look after the tyres probably a bit more than normal. So, yeah, overall, quite surprising, but, of course, very happy with what we showed today. Just hope that we can, you know, show this kind of performance a bit more often.”
Piastri: “I think, obviously, slight disappointment, probably. It’s never a great day when you start first and finish third. So, yeah, just not a great day. I think Turn 1 was not ideal. I think in the end, our stop timing wasn’t… I think the race panned out differently to how we expected at the start of the first stint. So then the timing of the VSC and the safety car, the race was very tough from very early on. Honestly, given people had fresher tyres at the end, hanging on to a podium is not a bad result. And you’re going have tough days in the championship, and this is clearly one of them. So as long as we learn the lessons, then that’s all I can ask.”
Horner: “We were also surprised by Mclaren’s lack of performance. We definitely got the car in a very good window in qualifying. And Max was certainly very positive about the balance and being able to lean on the rear of the car. That was certainly a positive. And then that carried through it and he suddenly felt taking that into the race with just in a better balance window. And that proved to be the case. The start was pretty average. It was first corner. Oscar may be was more focused on Russell and he left the slightest of gaps and Max just sent it and it was kind of win it or bin it. Again, he is so good in that situation where he sees a gap and it is so decisive for him.
“Then after, we had the pace to pull out a gap. We had the margin on tyre deg that we could see we were in a better shape than the McLaren. Then the VSC came out. That was at an opportune time, circa mid-race. And then the safety car came out, which was another essentially free pitstop for the first couple of guys. But at all times, Max had the pace. He was able to respond. It never felt that we were under pressure from behind. So, it was a great performance. The guys were very strong in the pitlane today, particularly after they worked until 2am last night. Yuki, I thought, drove a very good race as well, coming back from the pitlane start to be in the points. Overall, a very positive 400th Grand Prix.”
Stella: “After coming from the race in Miami, where our pace was very strong, we knew that due to the track layout and the slightly different ambient conditions, this race would be more balanced. We knew that it would be very balanced in qualifying, like we saw in Saudi and in Japan, at this kind of fast-flowing circuit. But I have to say we were a little surprised – I think I have to be a bit honest here – by the pace of the Red Bull, which was very competitive. Well done to Max, well done to Red Bull for being able to pull off this kind of performance, which meant that the race was decided by the episode, or swap of positions, between Oscar and Max in corner one.
“After that, we tried to chase him, but effectively, we didn’t have enough race pace to be able to beat Max taking the lead after Lap 1. I think during this event, tyres were a factor, but not in the sense of warm up, for instance, or a safety car restart. The tyres during this event were a factor because the soft tyres weren’t performing very well in qualifying, when new, and the tyres were a factor in the race in two ways. In the first stint, somehow if you went through a phase in which the tyres looked like they were degrading heavily, then they actually had something more to offer, which is the reason why Lando, Max and some other drivers were going for a one-stop, but certainly there was a phase in which the tyres seemed to go off, which is where other drivers deviated on to a two, including Oscar.
“And then the tyres were a factor because at the safety car restart it was more the fact that the tyres did degrade, so cars on a new tyre could overtake the cars that didn’t change tyres in the safety car. I think this is where the tyres played a role in this weekend, but in terms of warm up, firing up the tyres, I think there wasn’t much today.”
Lap 1 pass –
Verstappen: “I think it’s a bit like I started to carry a bit more speed to the apex. And then at one point, you have that kind of momentum swing then going into Turn 3. And then, of course, I knew that I was ahead, but it all goes so fast. And you have to be really precise, you know, to try and not go too far offline. But, yeah, luckily, the grip was alright there.”
Piastri: “Yeah. I mean, I thought I had it pretty under control, and it was a good move from Max. So, yeah, I’ll learn for next time clearly. But at that point, I wasn’t overly concerned to not be in the lead, but then our pace just wasn’t as strong as I expected. So that compounded that first corner.”
Strategy –
Verstappen: “Not a lot. I mean, they were getting quite destroyed. It was already quite hard to be consistent in those last few laps. So, it wouldn’t have been long before I think I was in. Yeah, for sure [one-stop was possible]. I mean, that’s why we just kept on going. I think Lando and I would have done a one-stop.”
Piastri: “Not clear, but I think a lot of people around were struggling. I was starting to struggle a bit. We kind of discussed it a bit, I guess, but it’s something we still need to go through more clearly. Because I think, yeah, maybe we reacted a bit too quickly. But, yeah, we’ll have a look.”
Horner: “I think Oscar had obviously pushed quite hard early on, and you could see he was starting to get a little bit of graining on that front right. It was borderline whether it was going to be a two-stop or one-stop. They obviously pulled the trigger on the two-stop, but, because of the length of the pit lane here being 27 seconds, it put him into a world of pain, traffic-wise. And so Max was then able to keep running and the deg was super low. Even with Lando in clean air behind, we were able to manage, quite easily, a nine to nine-and-a-half-second gap. And obviously when the VSC came out, the pit stop was pretty straightforward.
“Then Oscar pitted again on his strategy, which neutralised things but, by that time, he’d use both of his hard tyres. Then that final Safety Car, obviously, Max and Lando pitted, but it dropped him behind Oscar. You’ve got two drivers that are fighting for a world championship. At some point, self-interest will always outweigh team interest and that’s the conflict. They did a good job to not make contact. But it was commendable that they were allowed to race. But you could see it got pretty close. Today we had the pace to cover whatever McLaren thrown at us. The first stint was really encouraging.
“We could see that Max was managing more than the guys behind. He was driving very smartly and still pulling out a gap. That’s always a happy place to be in. You get the longevity and it is the first time in quite a while that we have been in that position. Then, the next stint was really about bringing the tyre in gently and the car gently and not thrashing it. And then the last stint, it was ten laps race at the end and Max was able to bring the hammer down. At all points the management and the pace and the deg was very good today.”
Stella: “Well, I think at the time Oscar’s tyres were going off by a good chunk and Oscar was passing some feedback that that was the case. It was unclear entering this event whether it would have been a one or a two. If it was a two, that was the time to go. And if the hard tyres had behaved just a little bit better, then the two would have been a very strong strategy, despite having to overtake some other cars. But once he went on hard tyres, actually it wasn’t much faster than Lando and Max that stayed out on the used medium. So I think the hard tyres were a little less competitive than we thought, but we needed to deviate and create the condition to beat Max today.
“So I think this is something that you can only judge in hindsight, but if you deviate that was the time to go for a two-stop. So no regrets and ultimately for the team it’s the same outcome and for Oscar it could have been the way to win and sometimes when you take some risks to win there may be a little bit of a downside. In terms of team orders, we discussed this kind of scenario before the race, so we don’t enter the race with everything to be debated live. And we know that when you have degradation you need the new tyres, because if you stay out on used tyres, even if Imola is not the easiest track to overtake, not only you can be overtaken by those that pit it, but you can be overtaken multiple times, which I think is what happened today with Leclerc.
“So I think with Oscar we were happy to take a bit of risk, because we know that the car is competitive and we knew that the tyres were not going off completely and Oscar wanted to play this car to try and see if he could gain a position, fair enough, the drivers are free to race from this point of view, but Lando was quite convinced that he wanted the new tyres because he would have been able to re-overtake, and again, if we wanted to have a chance with Max, we did need the new tyres. So I think it was a relatively straightforward decision.”
Improvement during weekend –
Horner: “Definitely we managed to put some performance on the car and get the car in a better window. As soon as you take away the sliding, you are able to manage the temperature a lot better. That was really encouraging. McLaren on Friday again looked very fast on the long runs. To have the pace we had in the race is may be since certainly Brazil last year which was obviously a wet race, that’s the first time I can remember in a long time we’ve had the pace to really pull away and out-deg the McLaren. So that’s very encouraging and a great result for the effort that’s gone in behind the scenes. Generally, we’re getting a better grip and a better understanding, and I think that the technical team have been working very hard on it.
“I think that’s a second win, arguably we should have won in Jeddah, on the front row yesterday. So, it’s been a very positive weekend, and I think we’re building a bit of momentum, which is important at this stage in the championship. We bought some sublte new parts here and I think that Friday, we understood what they were doing where we could fine tune the set-up around them going into Saturday. And then look after the car, really when Max jumped out of it in FP3, he was much-much happier. And that carried through into quali and then again going into the race day, we did not know what to expect tyre deg wise because McLaren obviously looked so good on Friday, we generally thought it would be very difficult to beat them today.
“It was very reassuring that actually to see that our deg was better today. It is an important win for the team and at this point in the championship. It feels like we are building a little bit of momentum behind the scene. The factory, everybody behind the scene is working incredibly hard. It is a timely win championship wise. It keeps the pressure on and keeps us in touch.”
Hotter conditions didn’t help –
Stella: “We will have to look at the data, we will have to look at the behaviour of the tyres and their thermal regime. I think what’s happening today is a combination of Red Bull, I think they have improved. They’ve been developing their car over the last couple of races and I think they have taken a step forward. And then if we look at the speed of the corners and we compare with the speed in Miami, maybe one day I can come with the telemetry and we make it slightly more technical, it’s a completely different regime.
“The car operates in a completely different aerodynamic part of the aerodynamic maps and I think we know that our car is strong in track layouts like Miami or Bahrain or China, but when it comes to high speed corners like we have here in Imola, I don’t think we enjoy any particular advantage. So the track layout, the progress of Red Bull, I think they are the two factors that meant that we didn’t have much advantage today.”
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-emilia-romagna-grand-prix-verstappen-takes-the-lead-on-the-race-start-with-stunning-move-on-piastri.1832464325975929447
Here’s McLaren fight: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-emilia-romagna-grand-prix-norris-fights-his-way-past-title-rival-piastri-for-p2.1832473903985690409
Here’s how F1 Imola GP panned out
