“Like His Life Depended on It”: Horner Assesses Sainz’s Short-Lived Brilliance to Laud Max’s Strategic Masterclass

In a season dominated by Max Verstappen and Red Bull, Formula 1’s trip to Monza was turning out to be a dream race weekend for Ferrari and the Tifosi. Carlos Sainz’s stellar qualifying performance gave him his fourth pole position, narrowly edging out Verstappen and Charles Leclerc. And with Leclerc in P3, Ferrari’s home race couldn’t have been turning out better. Despite knowing the inevitable—Verstappen’s RB19 way too superior to the SF-23 to hold him off—Leclerc devised a plan to help the Scuderia achieve a 1-2 finish. 

He said, “If we can overtake Max tomorrow at the start, then I can use the DRS behind Carlos on all straights and keep Max behind me. That would be the ideal scenario.” Although the Monegasque’s plan didn’t quite work out, Sainz ensured he stayed ahead of the reigning champ and gave him a tough time. It was this effort that Christian Horner recognized.

Max Verstappen knew the inevitable too

With an average speed of 160mph during a lap around Monza—the Temple of Speed—it wouldn’t be hard to decipher that drivers spend most of the lap with their foot on the throttle. A track that is predominantly straights, it was almost inevitable that Red Bull, with its DRS advantage, would do well here. While Verstappen knew that, he didn’t realize that Ferrari would turn up with straight-line speed that would trouble him. Starting in P2 behind Carlos Sainz in P1, the Dutchman kept Leclerc at bay after the lights went out. His problems began then. 

Once DRS was enabled on Lap 4—and he had been within a second of Sainz throughout, forcing the Spaniard to abuse his tires and lose grip—Verstappen expected the overtake to be a piece of cake. Much to his dismay, Sainz brilliantly held on for 14 laps, using his tires, talent, and top speed to keep Verstappen behind. But on Lap 15, he took the lead and cruised to victory. Discussing the battle for the lead and Red Bull’s eventual victory, Christian Horner said, “We had to do [get the win] the hard way.”

Read More: “Feel Sorry for You”: Putting Historic Win on Backburner Verstappen Sympathizes With Sainz to Showcase Ultimate Sportsman Spirit

He continued, “The Ferraris were really quick, as we saw in qualifying. Then Carlos was defending like his life depended on it. Then Max bided his time and made the overtake to pull away.” For those 14 short-lived laps, Sainz must’ve felt on top of the world—leading Ferrari’s home race in a Ferrari. Even he knew he’d eventually have to relinquish the lead. That didn’t stop him from putting up a good fight, one that frustrated Verstappen and made him sweat, but also earned Ferrari some appreciation.

Max Verstappen’s fight for P1 made the victory “a lot more fun”

Ferrari’s tire degradation isn’t the best, and Verstappen knew that and used it to his advantage. Right off the bat, he kept within a second of Sainz until he overtook him for the lead, forcing Sainz to use his tires more than he should’ve. Because of the race pace disparity, Verstappen didn’t need to be as hard on his tires, had to keep applying the pressure and wait for his moment. That’s precisely what he did, and instead of getting wins the usual lead-from-start-to-finish way, the Dutchman had to use his head like his race engineer GP says.

When asked about his win—a record 10th consecutive one—in the post-race interview, Verstappen said,  “I never would’ve believed that was possible. We had to work for it today, and that definitely made it a lot more fun. We had good pace. I think we were good on the tires, but they had a lot of top speed. And it was hard to get close and get a move on into Turn 1, so I had to force him into a mistake. Luckily, it came at some point where he locked up, and I had better traction out of Turn 2. From there on, we could do our own race.”

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Despite how good Carlos Sainz’s defensive moves were, Max Verstappen’s patience and strategic masterclass helped get the better of Sainz. What did you think of the Italian GP?