McLaren 'the standout cat', says Horner: 'We had that advantage in 2023'

15:53, 06 May

Updated: 16:07, 06 May

byNorberto Mujica

After McLaren won the Miami Grand Prix by almost 40 seconds to Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen, team principal Christian Horner points to where the papaya team's advantage lies: temperature control.

It's been a rather controversial matter as of late, with a supposed Red Bull investigation into McLaren's temperature control effectiveness, prompting a back and forth between the Woking-based team's CEO Zak Brown, and his Red Bull counterpart, Horner, with the latter having the last say in the matter - so far - stating that this was 'part and parcel of Formula One.'

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McLaren's advantage like Red Bull's in 2023

Speaking after the race, however, Horner praised McLaren and compared the advantage the papay team have today to the lead the Austrians had over the rest of the field in the 2023 F1 season.

"McLaren are the standout car, they had the kind of advantage that we saw a couple of years ago and they're obviously doing a very good job in managing temperatures and particularly I think if you look at the medium stint there, at the end of the medium tyre stint, that was probably where they were the most competitive," said Horner to media like GPblog after the race in Miami.

"That's what we need to focus on. I think we had brake issues that have compounded the problem in the race, but that's what we need to understand moving forward."

Verstappen did indeed complain of his braking performance which were marked clearly by the times the Dutchman locked up and went straight on, like when McLaren driver Oscar Piastri managed to overtake him, for instance. This only caused the temperatures in his brakes and tyres to go up even more.

In qualifying Red Bull can put up a fight, in the races, McLaren have the upperhand

"I think the advantage is bigger in the race, because everything gets super hot in the race and runs at a much bigger temperature, so the advantage will always be bigger in the race than it is in qualy."

So, Red Bull have the pace to fight McLaren, they just lack the temperature control efficiency the papaya team has, to be able to take the challenge to them more consistently.

During qualifying, as Verstappen has made evident, Red Bull can indeed fight, and when they do, Verstappen usually comes out ahead.

"I think that theoretically if they'd have put their theoreticals together in qualy yesterday they should have been ahead of us," concluded Horner.