F1’s speed race heats up as Stella, Horner, and Sainz weigh in on whether McLaren has eclipsed Red Bull.
Although Lando Norris did not win the Spanish Grand Prix, he had secured pole position against Max Verstappen. Moreover, the Briton experienced better tyre wear than the Dutchman during the race.
Meanwhile, the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were resigned to vying for honourable places against the Mercedes F1 cars.
So why did Lando Norris lose the race, despite his strong pace at the end? Notably, it was due to his poor start, which pushed him back to third place.
At least that’s the view of Christian Horner, who is very impressed with McLaren F1’s progress.
“If Lando had been in the right track position, he would have been hard to beat. I mean, it was so tight between the two of them (Max and Lando), they were, what, 18 seconds [15 seconds, editor’s note] ahead of the rest of the pack.”
“I would say then that Lando has emerged as our most consistent challenger.”
Does Red Bull now have a slower car than McLaren F1 according to Christian Horner?
“McLaren looked fast, especially at the end of stints, which is something we’ve seen for a few races now. So, their degradation seems good.”
“That was somewhat offset by strategy and their out-laps. But we had enough in reserve to get the job done.”
Sainz sees Red Bull trailing McLaren
Red Bull and McLaren F1 lead, with Mercedes and Ferrari behind: this is also the assessment of Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard even believes that Woking currently has the best car.
“Honestly, the most consistent car right now is a McLaren.”
“Red Bull struggles at some circuits. It’s the same for us. McLaren is fast everywhere. They are quick at low speed. They are flat out in turns three and nine in Barcelona. It’s in turn five where they are the fastest.”
“So, I see no weakness in McLaren at the moment. For me, Red Bull is still ahead. But McLaren is fast everywhere, which is quite impressive.”
For Stella, it’s a draw with Red Bull
From the McLaren F1 team’s perspective, team director Andrea Stella believes there is a draw between Red Bull and Woking. The two cars are almost equal.
“The race pace was very, very similar. The fact that we were faster at the end was because we had fresher tyres. The fact that Max Verstappen was faster at the start was because we were behind Russell.”
“But it seems that the excellent balance of performance we had in qualifying, the parity of performance, was carried into the race, where normally you see some variations depending on how you interact with the tyres.”
“But on a circuit as demanding in terms of tyres and aerodynamics, it’s very good news for the progress we’ve made in terms of car performance.”
Speed Kings: Is McLaren Outpacing Red Bull?. Speed Kings: Is McLaren Outpacing Red Bull?
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