Christian Horner Reveals Big Worry For Upcoming Races - 'Difficult For The Drivers'

Saajan Jogia | Aug 9, 2024

BARCELONA, SPAIN - FEBRUARY 27: Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner and Jos Verstappen talk in the Pitlane during Day Two of F1 Winter Testing at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on February 27, 2020 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Charles Coates/Getty Images) / Red Bull Content Pool

Red Bull's Christian Horner acknowledged that McLaren's MCL38 is in a better development phase than Red Bull's RB20, leading to struggles in recent upgrades and Max Verstappen falling behind Lando Norris. Horner stressed the need to broaden Red Bull's development efforts to prevent McLaren from closing the gap.

The team principal attributed McLaren's wider development window to its resurgence, which allowed the Papaya team to overtake Formula 1's dominant force of the ground effect era- Max Verstappen and his Red Bull title contender. The window was so broad for McLaren to work with that it now sits just 42 points behind the leading team, Red Bull, in the Constructors' Championship.

Red Bull won all but one Grand Prix last season and carried forward this form into 2024 when it won four of the first five races. As the tables turned, Verstappen managed to win three of the last nine races, as McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari took turns to secure Grand Prix victories.

While Red Bull remains in the lead in both championships, the dominance factor, most prominent in the current ground effect era seems to be fading as the season goes by. Horner expressed his worry by explaining that the engineers at Red Bull need to broaden the window before the team continues to lose points. Speaking to the media, he said:

"Their [McLaren] car is in a better window than ours at the moment.

"It has a broader window. Our window seems to be very peaky, and that's what's making it difficult for the engineers, difficult for the drivers.

"So we have to bring balance to the car to make that window broader because it's so critical on temperature and all other relevant factors. It's something the team is very aware of, and working very hard on."

The team boss added that Red Bull must squeeze more performance out of the car to create a significant gap to McLaren, which is closing in on its rear wing, considering only ten races remain this season. Horner added:

"We've got more performance to bring.

"As I say, we need to expand that operating window of the car.

"If the car is in the right window it qualifies on pole by four-tenths, like in Austria, and in Hungary we missed the pole by a tenth.

"You listen to Max, he's got limitations in the car that he wants [sorting]. He knows where the performance is. The trick is how you translate those issues to solutions, engineering-wise and aerodynamically."