Red Bull team boss Christian Horner admits Daniel Ricciardo benefitted from the second Virtual Safety Car period at the Malaysian Grand Prix to win the race.
With a first VSC right at the start following the first-corner melee, the Milton Keynes-based outfit decided to pit Max Verstappen early with his team-mate staying out.
“Our philosophy was to take more risk with the tail car,” Horner explained. “So therefore it made more sense to bring Max in at that point. He didn’t lose any positions.
“And it was just rolling the dice. Halfway through the race, it looked like that strategy was working out for him as the more competitive.”
The Dutchman was flying on fresh rubber and hot on Ricciardo’s heels with around 20 laps to go and the Australian having to stop once more.
That’s when race leader Lewis Hamilton’s engine blew up and triggered the second neutralisation.
“What really saved Daniel’s race was the second VSC, which then it made total sense to pit both drivers, not take any risk, to put them on to the soft tire to the end of the race,” Horner added.
Asked whether Red Bull considered keeping Max out during the last VSC, the team principal replied: “No because it would have been marginal to the end of the race with the tires.
“So we thought we will double stop, we have the time to be able to do that, and then it was a straight race between the two of them. We were looking for the tire to go an awful long way.”
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