Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes Ferrari gave up on their strategy gamble at “the worst time” in Melbourne.

So, he would pass on the advice that rain “p***ing down in the pit lane” is a very good cue to switch to wet tyres.

Australian GP: Did Ferrari ‘abort’ strategy ‘gamble’ at critical point?

The rain made its mark on the F1 2025 season-opening race in Melbourne, as the chilly conditions and wind combined with a greasy Albert Park circuit to make for treacherous conditions.

As the race got underway, the rain intensity would ease up, but the radar would later detect a heavy burst potentially on its way.

That cloud burst did indeed arrive, and while Red Bull attempted to keep Verstappen out there – after race leader Lando Norris had pitted for intermediates – to tiptoe his way through the increasingly wet final sector, the message soon turned to “box, box”.

That was not the case at Ferrari though as Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc looked to continue roughing it out, despite a spin for Leclerc.

But, with Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto crashing out, the Safety Car was deployed and Ferrari at that stage brought their drivers in for inters, P2 and P3 becoming ninth and tenth for Hamilton and Leclerc respectively, the end result P8 for Leclerc and Hamilton P10.

It was a strategy from Ferrari which Horner could not quite get his head around.

“It looked like they were taking a bit of a gamble, and then they probably aborted at the worst time,” he stated.

“So yeah, I haven’t followed their race plot that closely. From the pit wall, that’s sort of what it looked like.”

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Horner’s belief when it comes to strategy is that reaction is key to the conditions and situations.

So, he rather simply advised Ferrari on what this would have meant for them in that Australian GP scenario.

“I think you’ve always got to react to very much what’s going on around you,” he said.

“When it’s p***ing down in the pit lane, it’s usually a good time to put some wet tyres on!”

Norris ultimately began his F1 2025 campaign and title challenge with victory, withstanding the pressure from Verstappen to win by less than a second, while Mercedes’ George Russell completed the podium.

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