Motorsports
Ferstappen: “It wasn’t easy to plan clever tricks, but we did it”
Max Ferstappen explained that it was a tactical win over Charles Leclerc at the Saudi Arabian GP and said his season “moved on” after his Bahrain departure.
Max Ferstappen’s tactics that gave him victory in Jeddah focused on two areas. The first was maintaining his hard tires for nearly 30 laps after his simultaneous pit stop with rival Charles Leclerc on lap 16 to make his attack on the final 10 laps.
The second was the DRS games before the last corner of the track. This is where the DRS tracking point is located, giving any rider less than a second behind the lead the open wing advantage in a straight line – an advantage that is huge at Jeddah in particular.
On lap 42, Leclerc almost gave the lead to Ferstappen before the last corner, giving the Monegasque the big advantage over the DRS on the long straight. And so it happened, and Leclerc soon took the lead again. Ferstappen realized he had to be smarter about it next time – but when he tried the same spot two laps later, he locked his brakes and tried to let Leclerc pass.
It’s a completely paradoxical way of two riders fighting for victory. In the same way and for the same reason, Ferstappen braked in Jeddah last year, resulting in Hamilton (who also didn’t want to pass) hitting Red Bull in the rear. Finally Ferstappen managed to move into lap 47 tonight and even kept the difference with Leclerc’s DRS.
“It wasn’t easy to plan clever tricks in the last corner, but I finally managed to get through. But Leclerc was firmly in the DRS zone again.”said the Dutchman. “It seems that if you get close enough, if you get like half a second, you can have a good exit. And that makes it harder to try to overtake, say, in the last corner compared to last year , it’s more difficult.” to plan the overtaking you’re going to make”.
In addition, Ferstappen played well in the waiting game with tire management, closely following Leclerc for 30 laps: “Ferrari is very fast in the corners, we are on the straight, but the tires wore out very quickly here. In the end we saw that we had a little more speed and I tried to overtake.”said the champion.
And he concluded: “It was a really difficult game but a good one. We’re fighting at the top and we’ve just started playing the waiting game. It was difficult but I’m very happy that we moved our year forward.”
RBR CEO Christian Horner said: “It was a very patient race from Max. He protected the tires until the end and then the last safety car launched his attack. Ferrari have a great car and great drivers. It was a very tough fight today and if we that expected.” . it’s going to be something epic for the rest of the season.
The Briton also pointed to the unlucky man of the day, Sergio Perez, who missed out on a possible win by pitting just before Nicolas Latifi crashed, which brought the safety car off the track. Perez, said Horner, “He drove great all three days. He will gain a lot of confidence. He took pole position, controlled the race and was just unlucky with the safety car, but that happens sometimes.”
Sophia Jhon is a sports journalist and author. He has worked as a news editor for Sportish and is now a sport columnist for the same publication. Alberta’s professional interests lie largely in sports news, with an emphasis on English football. He has also written articles on other sporting topics.
Max Verstappen has said he does not pay much attention to rumors that some teams may have possible technical advantages in their new Formula 1 power units.
It has recently been claimed that Mercedes and Red Bull have found a way to further increase engine power, while other teams are trying to eliminate this possible advantage. The FIA will meet with power unit manufacturers on January 22 to discuss the issue before the season starts.
Rumor has it that such optimization could produce around 15 hp, which is a significant figure at the beginning of a new era in technical regulations.
When asked whether Red Bull had an advantage in the pre-season, Verstappen replied:
“It’s impossible to know. Everyone is trying to do the best they can and I, especially me, have to focus on driving the car. I’m not here to be an engine engineer and explain all the details. Ultimately, this is a matter between the FIA and the engine manufacturers. I drive the car and I believe we always do everything we can to get the best out of the engine.”
Source: Sport UA
Ruth Waterhouse is an author and sports journalist who writes for Sportish. She is known for her coverage of various sports events and her insightful analysis of sports-related news. With a passion for sports and a keen eye for detail, she has become a respected voice in the sports community.
Red Bull Formula 1 team president Laurent Mekies believes the Bulls will be behind their rivals at the start of the 2026 season, given the production of their engines and new aerodynamic rules.
“We know it will be difficult for us, especially at the beginning of the season. I think we will fall behind our rivals, but we need to hold on for a few more months.”
“I hope we come back to the top, but it would be naive to think that Red Bull will be ahead right away. We will be behind at the start,” said Mekis.
Bulls will produce its engines in collaboration with Ford from 2026.
Source: Sport UA
Ruth Waterhouse is an author and sports journalist who writes for Sportish. She is known for her coverage of various sports events and her insightful analysis of sports-related news. With a passion for sports and a keen eye for detail, she has become a respected voice in the sports community.
After several significant personnel changes in the team, Max Verstappen has finally learned who he will be working with in the Red Bull pits for the new season.
At the end of last year, it became known that three key members of the four-time world champion’s headquarters had left. According to De Telegraaf, Jeff Ayton replaced Verstappen’s vehicle control engineer Michael Manning, who left the team after the 2025 season. He has previously worked with other Red Bull drivers and worked temporarily with Verstappen in Manning’s absence last year.
Verstappen’s former engine mechanic David Mart has moved to Audi and his replacement at Red Bull has not yet been determined. Performance engineer Tom Hart is also leaving the team; He will join Williams but will continue to work with the Milton Keynes-based team for a while.
Changes also occurred among mechanics. After Matt Culler moved to the position of Audi’s chief mechanic, Verstappen was replaced as his first mechanic by his twin brother John Culler. He is well known to Max, who has previously held a similar position on the other side of the Red Bull pits, working alongside Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda.
Despite rumors about the winter break, Gianpiero Lambiase will remain Verstappen’s race engineer for another season.
Source: Sport UA
Ruth Waterhouse is an author and sports journalist who writes for Sportish. She is known for her coverage of various sports events and her insightful analysis of sports-related news. With a passion for sports and a keen eye for detail, she has become a respected voice in the sports community.
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