Christian Horner says Max Verstappen made a bold and very precise prediction ahead of last weekend's Japanese Grand Prix that turned out to be right on the money.
Red Bull and its star driver headed into their race weekend at Suzuka determined to avenge the team's scathing defeat in Singapore a week earlier that put an end to its clean sweep run of success in 2023.
While pundits speculated on whether Singapore had been an outlier or the beginning of something more fundamentally unfavorable for the Milton Keynes-based outfit in the wake of a renewed clampdown by the FIA on flex-wings, the team itself was confident that it had suffered at Marina Bay an exceptional one-off setback.
As everyone awaited Friday's opening practice at Suzuka to gain a measure of Red Bull's situation, Horner was convinced that Verstappen would resume his winning ways, while the Dutchman already had a remarkably clear vision of how his weekend would pan out.
"Sometimes the races you lose are the weekends you learn the most out of," Horner said in Suzuka. "It was a big reminder for everybody that it's very easy to miss the target.
"I think we all left Singapore knowing that ultimately the winning run would come to an end, but we were a little frustrated.
"I was playing padel tennis with Max on Wednesday and he was properly fired up. He made it clear: 'I want to win the race by 20 seconds.'
"He managed to come within 0.7 seconds of doing that!
"From the very first lap in FP1, where on the Hard tyre he was 1.8 seconds faster than the rest of the field on Medium and Soft tyres, he was totally focused on this event."
©RedBull
Indeed, from the outset there was no defying the soon-to-be three-time F1 world champion who put together a flawless performance, crushing his nearest rival – McLaren's Oscar Piastri – in qualifying by 0.581s and winning on race day the margin that he had predicted.
"It's a circuit that he loves and enjoys, it's one of the ultimate drivers' circuit," added Horner.
"It was an outstanding performance, his laps in qualifying, particularly the final lap, stand out as one of the best F1 qualifying laps.
"It's got to be up there with one of the best laps of all time in qualifying."
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