‘No risk, no fun,” Christian Horner reveals why Max Verstappen’s last minute shenanigans at the Austrian GP were a perfect tribute to late Red Bull founder

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner shares the reason behind letting Max Verstappen pit in the final stages of the race.

‘No risk, no fun,” Christian Horner reveals why Max Verstappen’s last minute shenanigans at the Austrian GP were a perfect tribute to late Red Bull founder

Max Verstappen and Christian Horner

Christian Horner and Red Bull Racing have been having an amazing season so far. During the last race weekend, the team went on to grab its 100th victory in the pinnacle of motorsport as Max Verstappen crossed the checkered flag first in Canada. The 2023 Austrian GP was a long awaited event for the bulls who would be racing on their home turf. The team had failed to win in Austria last year as Charles Leclerc took the honours.

Max Verstappen seemed more ready than ever for the 2023 Austrian GP having dominated Saturday’s sprint with a win margin of 21 seconds. The situation during the race was also quite similar. After a bit of a tussle at the start, Max slowly started to lose the crowd. At one point, the reigning world champion had a 24 second lead. However, things were about to change pretty dramatically.

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With just two laps remaining, Max Verstappen asked to put for chasing the fastest lap. Even though his engineer warned him, Max was relentless. In the end, Christian Horner was also a part of the decision making process. It was a bit of a risk since any mistake in the pits would mean losing out on a win to Charles Leclerc. In the end, the request was approved and the pitstop went smoothly as Verstappen won the race and Perez completed the podium.

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Christian Horner remembered Dietrich’s mantra while deciding to take a huge risk with Max Verstappen

Christian Horner and Max Verstappen
Christian Horner and Max Verstappen

The Red Bull team boss stated that the last minute call to put for the fastest lap seemed fit to be the perfect trivia for Mateschitz. The Red Bull Founder had passed away in October last year. “Stunning weekend from [Verstappen] and the first time we’ve been back here since Dietrich’s passing, it felt very poignant that it was a great team performance today,” Christian Horner said on Sunday evening.

“We decided to go for the fastest lap on the last lap, despite the risk involved in fluffing a pit stop. It was at the back of my mind his mantra was ‘no risk, no fun’ and the mechanics have been in such great form it seemed like a low risk thing to do in the end,” The Red Bull team boss continued. Anything could have gone wrong in the pitstop but it didn’t and the whole team is glad about it.

Max Verstappen now leads the championship with an even bigger margin. His points tally of 229 alone puts him on top of the constructors standings too with Mercedes having 178 points under their belt. Max’s average points finish per race this season is 25.4 which is frightening. A race win itself is 25 points earned. If this goes on them it will be interesting to see how early the Dutchman will be able to seal the championship.

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