Red Bull or McLaren? Palmer picks his favorite ahead of Brazilian GP

08:29, 05 Nov

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byTobia Elia

Who will come out on top between McLaren and Red Bull at Interlagos this weekend? Jolyon Palmer had his say.

"On paper, you'd say if there's going to be a performance advantage, it tends to go towards McLaren"

- Jolyon Palmer

Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast ahead of the weekend, Palmer said: "If everyone hooks up the perfect lap, you would say probably the McLaren is going to have a very small advantage. But it's a really tough one to call.

The former English driver suggested that Verstappen and Red Bull could gain an edge from the limited time dictated by the Sprint format, recalling how the Dutchman produced a dominant weekend in Austin last time.

"Like I said, it's a short lap. There's not—there's only one hour of practice as well. So it's more like Austin in that regard, where actually Max delivered a great lap in sprint qualifying and got pole straight away. And I think it's going to be very close between them."

Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri. Photo: Race Pictures

"I think McLaren, when you look through all of these races, the points difference we've seen from Oscar to Max has come down. But in all of those races, it's difficult to pinpoint a single weekend where Red Bull has been definitely the fastest car. The closest one would be Monza."

If he had to pick one, Palmer sees McLaren as slightly favored over the weekend, but he also expects the gap with Red Bull to remain very tight.

"On paper, you'd say, Oscar's form is probably a rough guideline for Brazil. Mexico is an outlier of a circuit with the nature of the altitude. Brazil's got a bit of altitude as well. On paper, you'd say if there's going to be a performance advantage, it tends to go towards McLaren—but it'll be close."

Palmer blasts McLaren's Mexico GP radio call to Norris as 'stupid'

The “papaya rules” are set to be a hot topic again at Interlagos, with the two title contenders closing in on the finish line and just four races left in the season.

Following the Mexican GP, Norris leads the championship by a single point over Piastri. Ahead of the Brazilian weekend, Palmer didn’t hold back, criticizing McLaren — especially their handling of both drivers in recent races.

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