Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes McLaren should have been honest with its two Formula 1 drivers earlier to avoid Oscar Piastri handing the team a “headache”.
McLaren created headlines prior to last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix as it revealed that it would start to prioritise Lando Norris‘ attempts to claim the Drivers’ title.
However, Norris endured a damage limitation outing in Baku as a premature Q1 exit saw him unable to compete at the sharp end along with Piastri, who won the race.
Piastri’s second career F1 victory has seen him continue as the highest points scorer over the last seven events and he has closed to 32 points behind his team-mate.
Norris, though, still represents McLaren’s greatest prospect in the championship as an impressive climb to fourth saw him reduce Max Verstappen’s lead to 59 points.
But Horner has contended that the Woking-based squad has been granted more than it bargained for with Piastri’s level relative to Norris in his sophomore F1 season.
“I think the other one [Piastri] is causing them headaches because he’s winning races and he’s doing a very good job,” Horner said.
“It was like when Daniel Ricciardo came to us [in 2014], he was clearly supposed to be the number two to Sebastian Vettel, and he won three races that year to Sebastian’s none.
“Sometimes it causes you a headache like that.
“For sure they took Oscar with the expectation, as Mercedes probably did with George [Russell], and Ferrari probably did with Carlos [Sainz], that you have a prime asset and a support asset.
“Of course when the second driver starts outperforming the first driver that’s when you tend to have a headache.”
Horner has expressed surprise that McLaren decided to go public with the revelation that Norris will be handed more support in certain situations over his team-mate.
“Usually those things are dealt with behind closed doors,” he highlighted. “I’m not actually sure what those rules are. There’s still seems confusion.”
Meanwhile, Horner has stated that both Red Bull drivers are clear on their respective roles as Sergio Perez is aware that he must be there to support Verstappen’s aim.
“Every team is different. Our rules of engagement are very clear,” he underlined.
“We’ve got a driver that’s fighting for a World Championship. It’s a team sport so it’s very clear Checo’s job is to support Max to the end of the year.”
He added: “Different teams operate in different ways. When you’ve got an asset like Max Verstappen, you don’t make him a number two driver.
“Lando Norris, they are paying five times what they pay Oscar, so I would assume that he would be their number one driver, or the biggest asset.
“So therefore the confusion comes when you are not upfront from the beginning about what your plans are.”
Horner has suggested that McLaren should have held more sincere discussions with both Norris and Piastri earlier in the campaign to avoid the problem it now faces.
“It becomes a very difficult problem to manage, because you split the team and the rules of engagement become very difficult,” he explained.
“Everybody knows probably who the number one and two is, but if you’re not upfront with the drivers, you end up with confusion.
“At the beginning of the season obviously it’s all open but certainly when you get to around the halfway point you’ve got to pick a horse, especially if you’re in a championship battle.”
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