Christian Horner has likened McLaren’s close racing to one car “making love” to the other’s exhaust, as Red Bull’s rivals romped to a dominant 1-2 at Formula 1‘s Austrian Grand Prix.
The Woking-based squad secured its fourth top-two lockout of the year, with Lando Norris taking a commanding victory from Oscar Piastri.
Red Bull’s misery was compounded by Max Verstappen’s first-lap retirement after being hit by Andrea Kimi Antonelli, with Yuki Tsunoda finishing 16th, two laps down.
The team’s advisor Helmut Marko concluded Verstappen would have been on for a podium finish had he not retired, leading him to the conclude the title race is “over” after a “black day” for the Milton Keynes-based outfit.
But there was no stopping McLaren, which ruled over the Red Bull’s eponymous circuit, leading Horner to make a notable observation of its car’s impressive tyre management.
“What’s truly impressive, and for me I can’t see any other team being able to do it, is when you look at how close Oscar is able to run behind Lando with a car fat on fuel at the beginning of the race,” he said.
“He’s basically making love to his f**king exhaust pipe for lap after lap after lap, and the tyres are not dying. I mean, that to me is, you know, that is their advantage.
“They’ve managed to create a car that really protects its tyres very well and obviously has a good balance.
“I can’t see any other car that would be able to follow that closely and not grain the front tyres or the rear tyres. I don’t really understand.”
Spielberg race one ‘to forget’ after Verstappen ‘wiped out’ by Antonelli
Verstappen was already on the backfoot after qualifying, having managed a meagre seventh place due to aborting his final run after a yellow flag.
The Dutchman got a good start, immediately taking sixth of Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls, and sat on the outside of Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari going into Turn 3.
But he ended up a helpless victim with Antonelli, perhaps showing some overexuberance, locked up in a bid to make his way through cars ahead and took himself and Verstappen out on the spot.
With Tsunoda struggling towards the foot of the field, Red Bull’s interest in the race was effectively over there and then, and Horner lamented what was a difficult afternoon.
“Well, that was a home race to forget,” he said. “We got unlucky [in qualifying], that then puts us in a position where you’re in the crash zone, and Kimi just lost it in spectacular fashion up at Turn 3.
“Max was basically through the corner and getting back on the power, and just got wiped out, so, an unfortunate mistake by Kimi, he’s apologised to Max, but, you know, for us it killed our afternoon.”
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