Red Bull team principal Christian Horner expects to battle McLaren consistently going forward, while Toto Wolff of Mercedes and Mike Krack of Aston Martin take motivation from McLaren’s leap up the field.
Following a push to the line at last weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix for McLaren’s Lando Norris, off the back of his debut race victory in Miami, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes the team can expect to be challenged on a regular basis by the much improved papaya cars.
McLaren’s latest upgrade package, introduced across the Miami and Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend’s, has seen them close the gap to Red Bull substantially. While admitting he expects to be challenged by the team, Horner played down their recent success in noting that the previous two circuits do not necessarily play to the strengths of the RB20.
“I think arguably over the last couple of races, yes, [McLaren] have been the main competitor,” Horner said in his post-race written media session. “They’ve definitely added performance to their car. The philosophy is very similar to that of our own and they’ve definitely made a step.
“So we expect them to be competitive at all circuits. There are certain circuits that play to our strengths and there are certain circuits that don’t. The last couple have been more circuits that haven’t played to the inherent strengths of the car.”
When asked for his thoughts on McLaren’s performance, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was quick to praise the Woking based team. He explains that Mercedes is encouraged by their results as evidence that the gap to the front can be closed with a strong development plan.
“I think it’s a fantastic recovery story when you look at where McLaren was 12 months ago,” Wolff replied. “They barely got out of Q1 — if. Now they’re fighting fair and square for race victories. The car’s not only fast, but also very good on the tyres.
“For us, first of all, we see the engine goes and the engine is good on the tyres as well. On the other side, the recovery they made, from a back marker to a front runner in less than 12 months. That’s something we are looking at and saying: it is possible, with the right steps, to make a car that is at the end of that front pack.”
Asked if Mercedes has an understanding of McLaren’s advantage against them, Wolff praised the team, simply putting their improvements down to good engineering.
“First of all, Why I love this sport is the stopwatch never lies,” he said. “They have done a good job and we have to have respect for how they have done things.
“More competition at the front is good for the sport and it’s good for everyone. I’m not looking at that with some envy. On the contrary, I’m looking at that and saying ‘this is what we need to achieve’. They’ve been able to do that and at the end of the day I think it’s just good engineering.
“They changed the concept late in the winter, I believe, of their car and bided their time until they brought that upgrade. Since then they have been adding performance. I think this is where we are trying to get to; to a stable platform where we say ‘this is what we want from the car’ and then the development machine just runs with it.”
Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack shared a similar sentiment, expressing his respect for McLaren, but acknowledging their improvements have to serve as motivation for the Aston Martin team in order to emulate their success.
“I think McLaren especially have shown what you can achieve.” Krack said. “This has to be motivation for all of us, that you can close these gaps – even to Red Bull. I think at the beginning of the year we were all saying ‘this is a repeat of ‘23’. But [McLaren] showed the way. They showed that it is possible.
“We have to acknowledge that first of all, but also it has to serve as the right motivation to do better.”
