Red Bull Racing’s Team Principal, Christian Horner, voiced his feelings after the Singapore Grand Prix, accusing McLaren of “taking the p***” when Lando Norris showcased his true speed advantage over Max Verstappen.
During the early stages of the race, Norris comfortably held a steady gap over Verstappen. A short team radio conversation revealed that Norris had been running at “pace six,” which led to his team advising him to push and extend the gap to Verstappen by five seconds. Within three laps, Norris responded by increasing the gap, pulling away at nearly a second per lap.
The gap had almost reached a free stop in hand when Verstappen boxed.
Horner was surprised by McLaren’s performance. “Yeah, that was taking the p***… although I probably shouldn’t say that officially,” he quipped, alluding to the weekend’s swearing controversy.
“The pace he had in hand on that tyre at that point in time was… we knew then that we had lost the race on pace.”
Despite Norris brushing the wall twice during the race, McLaren escaped unscathed. Horner acknowledged Verstappen’s strong performance given the circumstances on a weekend where the Woking-based team had a big advantage and Red Bull struggled on Friday, saying, “I actually think Max drove a very strong race.
“That was what we had, which when you consider where we were a couple of weeks ago, I think we have made some real progress. But obviously, we’ve got a lot of work to do before Austin.”
“I think the way the team reacted, the effort that went into that reaction, we were able to give Max a much better car yesterday [Saturday]. And obviously in the race, we couldn’t compete with Lando today, but we had the rest of the field covered.”
Horner noted that the medium stint was particularly challenging for Red Bull, as Norris pulled away effortlessly.
However, on the hard tyre, Red Bull’s pace was more competitive, although the damage was already done by that point. “On the first stint they were very quick,” Horner explained.
“I think on the hard tyre we looked in better shape, but of course, the gap is way too big by then, at a track that anyway is very hard to overtake.”
Horner acknowledged that Red Bull has made strides in improving its car’s performance, but noted that the gap between Norris and Verstappen, particularly on the medium tyres, was telling. “I think Lando was a step ahead, particularly on the medium tyre,” Horner remarked.
“On the hard tyre, it didn’t show as much. But on the medium tyre, he was very, very quick.”
He admitted that Red Bull could not match McLaren’s pace but emphasised that Verstappen had the rest of the field covered.
“I thought Piastri had good duration to his stint on that medium tyre. But then on the hard tyre, there was an 18-second gap. And it seemed to be static for a long period of time.”
When asked about his post-race radio message to Verstappen, in which he commented on Norris hitting the wall twice, Horner cheekily clarified that it was meant to highlight Norris’ good fortune.
“It was to show him he was a lucky b******,” Horner joked.
“Hitting the wall once is usually a wake-up call, and to hit it twice, somebody’s smiling at you.”
