Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner believes Aston Martin “let us off the hook” at the Monaco Grand Prix by pitting Fernando Alonso for new dry tyres just before a downpour.
Alonso was running second behind Max Verstappen when a mid-race rain shower caused chaos and confusion, leading several drivers to pit for wet weather tyres.
The Spaniard boxed for a set of medium tyres on Lap 55 with the rain still only light, but the weather dramatically turned for the worse in the following minutes, forcing Alonso to return to the pits for intermediates.
Verstappen stayed out for longer before switching to intermediates during his sole pitstop, leaving the reigning world champion with a huge gap to Alonso as he went on to seal a fourth victory in six races.
“I was surprised they took the medium tyre and that totally got us off the hook and then it was a question of getting it to the pits and having us turn the car around,” Horner said.
“I think in 20:20 hindsight we should have probably pitted one lap earlier to go on to the inters.
“But thereafter, [Verstappen] was very mature when the rain came. He took it steady and brought in the tyres and really closed out the race.”
Explaining Aston Martin’s thinking behind the call, team principal Mike Krack admitted there “was a bit of a misjudgement”.
“We did not anticipate so much rain to be honest,” Krack said.
“So we thought that it would just be a short shower and dry quickly because the track was very hot.
“Honestly, we thought we could go to the end with the mediums.
“But we misjudged a bit that it was raining, because in part of the track it took very long before it started to rain and it rained the least.
“Probably that was a bit of a misjudgment, because we also thought that the inters would wear down massively in this part of the track.
“At the end of the day, it was a conscious decision to go on the mediums. And we saw then a lap later that it was not going to work.”
Aston Martin’s decision not to go straight on to intermediates led many to suggest the team had missed the chance to potentially end Red Bull’s winning run in 2023.
But Alonso insisted after the race that Aston Martin had “no chance” of winning, adding that “in any tyre, in any condition, Max was always 15 or 20 seconds in front of us.”
And Krack echoed his star driver’s assessment, saying: “I don’t think it was lost.
“Because if we had fitted intermediates Max would have fitted intermediates as well and he had the gap.
“So, I don’t think it would have changed much.”
Keyword: Aston Martin reject suggestion Monaco GP F1 tyre call ‘let Red Bull off the hook'