Horner praises McLaren’s superior pace at Zandvoort, urging Red Bull to ramp up their game swiftly.
Christian Horner, the Red Bull director, was also taken aback by McLaren F1’s form at Zandvoort. The Briton acknowledged that his team could not compete with that of Woking in either qualifying or the race.
“McLaren was in a different league at Zandvoort. We did everything we could. Max turned a 2nd place into a lead position at the start, but their pace was really in another category,” Horner admitted.
“After taking the lead, we began to think. Max managed to break the DRS for Lando. But then, it became very clear that Lando started coming back quite strong from the fifth or sixth lap. We simply did not have the pace.”
“In hindsight, the bet we made with more downforce might not have been the best solution. And looking at Checo’s pace, it seemed easier for him in the second half of the race. McLaren was very fast, and we have work to do to gain more pace.”
Nevertheless, he remains highly motivated, as does his team: “We have a lot of work to do, but we learned valuable lessons this weekend. It’s time to digest and bounce back at Monza.”
“We still have a comfortable lead in the drivers’ championship, but a large portion of the points lead has been lost in the constructors’ championship, so we need to react. I am confident that we have the strength to do so.”
“For Max, it’s only the fourth time this year that his lead has been reduced. But we need to continue to score. And on days when you can’t win, you have to finish second. And he did that. Checo also had a decent race. His pace was solid. So we know we need to improve the car.”
Pérez had a better RB20 than Verstappen
And while Sergio Pérez finished sixth, far from Max Verstappen’s second place, Horner assures that his F1 was better: “We ran the two RB20s with different specifications, and I think that gave us a lot of valuable information. The feedback from the drivers was also very positive in terms of the feel of the different settings.”
“This now gives a real direction to the engineering group. It was clear that Checo’s race package had the upper hand over the two. But we now have 72 laps of data, on two different tire compounds, to compare this information at the factory.”
Horner is convinced that McLaren is now the benchmark on the grid, and he notes that this is not new, as it has been evident since the one-two finish in Hungary, or even before: “McLaren is now the benchmark. It’s clear in terms of pace.”
“This has been the case for the last two races. In Hungary, they were very competitive. At Spa, it was Mercedes. Here, particularly Lando was very, very strong. They undoubtedly have the fastest car at the moment.”
“We need to respond to this. It’s not rocket science but there is no magic solution in this field. It involves understanding the problem, addressing it, and implementing fixes.”
“In the championship race, McLaren has also been the reference car over the last few races. We are very aware that we need to respond to this. Everyone at Milton Keynes is working incredibly hard to address it.”
“We are clearly beaten”
Helmut Marko, the Red Bull advisor, draws the same conclusion as his director regarding McLaren: “We couldn’t keep up with the pace at all. Initially, the pace was comparable between Max and Lando, but then the tires started to wear and you could see with what ease Lando overtook us.”
“The big problem was tire wear. Max started to slide and could no longer attack. But in the end, of course, he managed the gap to the back. But for 1st place, he had no chance. And when Lando does a 1’13″8 on the very last lap without DRS, it shows that McLaren was clearly superior here. We could only dream of doing such a time. The gap was so large that it’s alarming. Nine more second places will not be enough.”
“It’s also worth remembering that the last stint of Sergio Perez was faster than that of Max. They were running with different settings. It might not have been the right choice to give more downforce to Max, as we were not fast enough in terms of top speed and it didn’t help us in the corners.”
“There is still a lot of work to do and it gives us something to think about. We are clearly beaten, so it’s alarming. I think it was partly due to the track, however. It was also a matter of relatively low temperature.”
“And it was interesting to note that after the pit stop, Piastri was running at about the same pace as Lando and nothing worked when he was stuck behind Charles Leclerc. Unfortunately, that was not the case for Lando when he overtook Max.”
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