Red Bull boss Christian Horner has asserted that he’s “happy” to see the pressure on McLaren and Lando Norris rather than his team going into the 2025 Formula 1 season.
McLaren and Red Bull split championship honours in the previous campaign as the Woking-based squad won the Constructors’ title, as Max Verstappen retained his crown.
Red Bull appeared on course to log another championship double with four victories in the opening five races, but a mid-season dip derailed the team’s dominant beginning.
The balance complications that Red Bull encountered with mid-season updates allowed McLaren to capture the initiative, claiming the points lead with seven races to go.
McLaren repelled Ferrari’s late surge to take the ultimate prize, prompting the team to be considered an overwhelming bet to sustain even more success in the upcoming season.
With McLaren retaining what was regarded as the benchmark car in 2024, Norris, who was runner-up to Verstappen, has admitted there are “no excuses” not to win both titles.
Horner has indicated that could work to Red Bull’s advantage, but he highlighted that even the initial races won’t paint a complete picture on how the pecking order stacks up.
“It’s sometimes good not to be the favourite. It puts the pressure on others,” Horner told media including Motorsport Week at the F1 75 season launch in London.
“I’d be very happy to see Lando go into the first race as the favourite, but it’s meaningless until we get to that first race. Even then, Melbourne’s a pretty unique circuit.
“I think you need to see that first batch of flyaways to get a real true read of form and degradation. We’ve got new surfaces in China.
“There’s a lot of moving parts and it’s such a long season. So, let’s see how it plays out.”
Verstappen was less willing to engage in the topic, insisting that Red Bull’s attention should remain on ensuring that it has resolved the issues that plagued the RB20.
Asked whether McLaren’s status among the bookmakers has underestimated Red Bull, he replied: “First of all, I don’t like betting, but it’s fine.
“We just have to focus on ourselves. There’s no point to look at others.
“We know that we have things to work on with the car and that’s what we’re doing.”
McLaren relishing championship pressure
Meanwhile, McLaren, which has adopted an innovative approach to its 2025 challenger, the MCL38, is relishing the expectation attached to being touted as the team to beat.
“We definitely feel, in a positive way, the pressure of being a World Championship team,” McLaren CEO Zak Brown expressed.
“We’re definitely not taking anything for granted.
“We see a few tenths can make a huge swing. We see how much pace we’ve found in 12 months, so we know others are definitely capable of doing that.
“So we’re just head down, very focused, not taking anything for granted, working very hard, but working really well together.
“The environment at the factory is pretty awesome. We’re pushing each other hard.
“There’s a lot of innovation on the racing cars, so we’ve not stood still as we go. We’ve got nine teams that aren’t sitting still either.”
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