Horner Unveils How McLaren Surpassed Red Bull

Christian Horner hints at the strategies behind McLaren’s sudden leap in performance, leaving Red Bull trailing.

Red Bull is no longer dominant on the F1 grid, but its director, Christian Horner, reminds us that the team was still dominant not so long ago. He even jokes that at the start of the season, his team was annoying everyone by winning with too much of a lead.

“It shows that things can change very quickly,” Horner said. “We were winning races by 20 or 25 seconds, and Stefano was asking us to slow down in the first five races!”

“Then things can change very quickly, which means they can also change in the other direction. We know we have a problem, you can hear Max today, he didn’t feel the car was responding to what he wanted.”

“I think we obviously need to be able to show this in a setup that works with these tires in all conditions. McLaren did it with Lando. We couldn’t do it, but we limited the damage by making sure that if you can’t win, you finish second.”

Red Bull brought in upgrades that didn’t deliver the desired performance, but the Briton notes that it’s mostly relative to its rivals: “It’s more about knowing where others have found performance. I think the front wing is key to understanding how they found it.”

And to explain why it’s not so simple for Red Bull: “I think the way front wings are used is very different. If you look at the angle of the front wings of McLaren and Mercedes, they are very, very different. They are very different from the rest of the grid.”