HORNER: “MCLAREN PLAYED WITH US BY EXTENDING THE GAP”
Christian Horner believes McLaren was “playing with us” after Lando Norris revealed his true advantage during the Singapore Grand Prix.
Norris was comfortably ahead of championship rival Max Verstappen by several seconds before a brief team radio exchange, where he informed his team he was going “at speed 6.” The pit wall responded, “Okay, in that case, we want you to push a bit more to create a five-second gap between you and Max in the middle sectors, if possible.”
Norris pushed harder, and by the end of lap eight, he was 2.6 seconds ahead, managing to establish a five-second advantage within three laps. During this critical phase, he had roughly a second-per-lap advantage over Verstappen.
Red Bull could not respond, and when Verstappen made his pit stop on lap 29, he was 24.7 seconds behind the leader.
Horner viewed Norris’s impressive performance as a moment that highlighted the extent of McLaren’s advantage. Using a colloquial expression, he said, “Yes, that was a bit of playing around.” He then jokingly referenced the profanity controversy that arose over the Singapore weekend, adding, “But I shouldn’t officially say that,” and concluded: “The speed he had on that tire… At that point, we lost the race on speed.”
“Honestly, Norris touched the wall for the first time, then touched it again. But they got away with it. I actually think Max had a very strong race. Considering where we were a few weeks ago, I believe we’ve made real progress. But clearly, we have a lot of work to do before Austin.”
Although the first stint was discouraging for Red Bull, Horner says that the similar pace of Red Bull and McLaren on the hard tires gave his team some encouragement on the way to the flag. “They were very fast in the first stint. I think we were in better shape on the hard tires, but of course, by then the gap was too large, and we were already on a track where overtaking is very difficult.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explained that the differences between the cars on the hard tires might not be fully representative, as they instructed Norris to slow down and bring the car safely to the finish line. Stella said, “To be honest, what caught our attention in the second part of the second stint was that the car started to struggle as soon as you passed someone from behind.”
“So, it was all about avoiding problems, mistakes, and lock-ups. We also saw in practice that when you got behind a slower car, it looked like there was an issue with the car, but it was just the effect of dirty air. Our focus was entirely on getting the car to the finish line. We suggested to Lando to set the fastest lap, and he achieved that. But after that, we didn’t want to talk about the fastest lap anymore.”
