Verstappen’s pit stop delay was due to Red Bull using reserve crew

Max Verstappen lost time in his pit stop during the Japanese Grand Prix because two key team members were missing, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner explained.

Matt and Jon Caller, who are twins, are the team’s number one mechanics. Horner revealed both had to return home this weekend for personal reasons, and the team had to use reserve members of their pit crew.

Verstappen was leading the race when he came into the pits on the same lap as Lando Norris, who was chasing him. Norris’s pit stop was slightly quicker which allowed him to challenge Verstappen at the pit exit, though he ran onto the grass and fell behind the Red Bull.

Horner said Red Bull anticipated McLaren would bring Norris in on the same lap as Verstappen, and the slight loss of time in their pit stop brought the two drivers close together in the pits.

“After they pitted Oscar [Piastri] first it was clear that they were going to pit Lando the following lap,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “So we pitted to cover [that].

“This weekend the two number one mechanics, that are twins, on the car, unfortunately their dad has not been well so they’ve gone back to the UK. So we’ve got the reserve guys on the pit stop and we had a slightly slower stop than would have been ideal.

“That allowed Lando – thankfully his stop wasn’t stellar either – to get close, but he was never alongside.”

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Norris claimed Verstappen had forced him off the track but race control took no action over the incident. “I think that stewards made the right decision on that,” said Horner.

Not only was Verstappen’s pit stop delayed, the team also failed to complete a planned change in front wing flap angle. That meant his car’s balance did not change as Verstappen intended it to during his second stint.

“At the first pit stop, we didn’t get the front wing adjustment that we wanted into the car and so that compromised his second stint with a bit more understeer than he would have probably liked,” said Horner.

“But again, playing with the tools, working with his engineering team to help him with his diff[erential] settings and so on to help that balance, it was a phenomenal team performance to extract every ounce of performance from the car this weekend.”

Horner praised Verstappen’s error-free run to victory despite sustained pressure from Norris. “There was so little overtaking in that race that it was going to take something Herculean or a big mistake [for] the McLarens to make a pass,” he said.

“It was all about being inch-perfect. Max knew that. He was quick where he needed to be: the last chicane, turn 11, they couldn’t get anywhere near. He kept them just out of the DRS [range].”

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