Red Bull boss Christian Horner said McLaren were “in a league of their own” as he measured his team’s race pace in comparison to the Woking outfit during the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.
For the third time in six rounds, Max Verstappen beat the McLarens to pole position in Miami.
However, in the race, things transpired far differently and the McLaren pace advantage over a GP distance was startling, with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris finishing half a minute ahead of the rest of the field.
Verstapen fended off Piastri for 14 laps and Norris for a further four, eventually succumbing to fourth with George Russell benefitting from a Virtual Safety Car to complete the podium.
Horner acknowledged post-race that Verstappen has what it takes to fight the McLarens over one-lap, and was surprised he kept the two MCL39s at bay for as long as he did in the GP, given the performance disparity in race pace.
“I think that theoretically if they’d have put their theoreticals together in qualy yesterday they should have been ahead of us,” Horner told select media including Motorsport Week.
“I think Max did an outstanding job and was able to get every ounce of performance and arguably they underperformed yesterday, but we knew going into this race it was going to be very, very hard to beat them and I was actually surprised that Max was able to hold them back for circa 14 laps or 13.
“I thought it was a very brave display, arguably that maybe hurt our own race because you’re fighting hard, your tyres are getting hot, but you’re leading the Grand Prix, you’ve got to go for it and I thought he did an outstanding job to keep Oscar behind as long as he did and then Lando.”
With temperatures running higher in the race, and thermal management being a particular weakness for Redf Bull, it was always going to be hard for Verstappen to keep the McLarens at bay.
Horner accepts that at the moment, race pace is a big advantage for Red Bull’s Woking-based rival.
“I think the advantage is bigger in the race isn’t it, because everything gets super hot in the race and run at a much bigger temperature, so the advantage will always be bigger in the race than it is in qualifying,” he continued.
“So yeah, obviously well done to McLaren, they were in a league of their own today, particularly with tyres running at the temperatures that they are, they definitely are doing a better job than the rest of the teams and had obviously a very competitive race.”
Horner compares McLaren advantage to Red Bull 2023
A one-two finish half a minute ahead of the rest of the field is clearly a dominant display.
Reflecting on McLaren’s strong showing, Horner implied that it was reminiscent of Red Bull’s efforts in 2023.
That campaign, the RB19 one all but one GP and had a similarly strong effort in Miami, where Verstappen and Segio Perez finished over 20 seconds ahead of the chasing pack.
“I think it’s important to understand obviously, I mean, McLaren are the standout car,” Horner said.
“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 on the medium stint there, at the end of the medium tyre stint, that was probably where they were the most competitive, so 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.”
Moving forward, Horner hopes Red Bull can challenge McLaren and assessed things will change at each given venue, since Verstappen has been competitive, winning, or fighting for victories at circuits such as Albert Park, Suzuka and Jeddah.
But other circuits, like Miami, expose Red Bull’s weaknesses of tyre management and through corner balance, highlight the work that’s needed to be done.
“Well of course it varies from circuit to circuit, in the last race we had the pace to beat the McLarens, this race has exposed their advantage and they’ve been able to operate in a window that they’ve been very effective with,” Horner said.
“So of course when you look at that performance, it feels like a lot to find but we’ve seen how quickly from circuit to circuit things can change and so obviously we know that the areas that we need to improve and they haven’t changed from before we arrived here.”
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