Christian Horner felt Dietrich Mateschitz, the Red Bull co-owner who passed away during the United States Grand Prix weekend, would have been proud of the way Max Verstappen recovered from a slow pit stop to pass both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to take victory in Sunday’s race at the Circuit of the Americas.

Verstappen looked on course for an easy win as he was clear of the field prior to his second pit stop, but a problematic wheel gun meant an eleven second pit stop and the loss of the lead.  Such was the delay he came out behind Scuderia Ferrari’s Leclerc as well as Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s Hamilton.

Horner, the Team Principal at Oracle Red Bull Racing, was delighted to see Verstappen take the victory, with he and team-mate Sergio Pérez doing enough to clinch the World Constructors’ Championship in the United States, something Mateschitz would have taken great delight in celebrating.

“I think that Max was driving a very controlled race today,” Horner is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “And then it all came alive when we had a gun issue on the second stop for Max, and we’d already elected to go on to the medium, which we felt was the better tyre.

“And he lost close to probably eight seconds in the pitstop. Which put him behind Charles [Leclerc], and then obviously he had to close down that gap down to Lewis. And it was almost as if it had been scripted for him to have to come back through the field.

“I think Dietrich would have quite enjoyed that race from above to see us overtaking Mercedes with five or six laps to go, and win the constructors’ World Championship. I think he would have been very proud about that race today.”

Talking of the wheel gun issue that almost cost Verstappen, Horner says they will be looking into what went wrong with it and introducing measures so it does not happen again.

“We’ve had it once in a practice,” Horner admitted.  “It’s gone into quarantine. It’ll go through its process, and we’ll find out what happened.”

“We were probably more competitive on the medium than we were on the hard”

Red Bull opted to put Verstappen on the medium compound Pirelli tyre for the final stint of the race on Sunday, with Horner believing that Red Bull were more competitive on that compound compared to the harder compound.

“I think we were probably more competitive on the medium than we were on the hard,” Horner revealed.  “So that was why we went back onto the medium at that second stop.

“And his pace, obviously, at the back end of the stint was then strong enough to really take it to Lewis, who looked like he was sliding the car, pushing the car very hard.

“So it was a game of patience. And I think Max was able to quickly get his frustration under control leaving the pit lane and not cook the tyres but bring them in, make the pass on Charles and then hunt down Lewis.

“The one opportunity he had was decisive and he got the job done.”

Horner thinks everyone at Red Bull would have been disappointed to have failed to take victory in the United States, with winning the best way to honour the memory of Mateschitz, who brought Red Bull into the FIA Formula 1 World Championship and backed them all the way to the top.

“With 10 laps ago I’m not sure it would have been the result that we would have all hoped for if we’d have finished second in the race today,” he said.  “I think Max had a determination going into the race. And I think he was always going to go for it.

“And we made life difficult for him today and made it more entertaining for the crowd. But he did it in the best possible way, and to win the grand prix here, to seal that constructors’ championship, was a very special moment for us as a team and as a company.

“And to do it on a weekend where lost Dietrich – obviously we’d like to dedicate this championship to him and his family for everything that he has done, not just for Red Bull Racing, but also for F1.”