Formula 1 champions and leaders McLaren will attract more scrutiny and face more questions about their cars simply because they are so dominant, according to Red Bull boss Christian Horner.
McLaren have won five of six races this season and took a dominant one-two in Miami on Sunday, with championship leader Oscar Piastri ahead of teammate Lando Norris while George Russell’s third-placed Mercedes was more than half a minute behind.
There was plenty of chatter about tyre temperatures afterwards, and questions about how McLaren were managing better than others to keep them under control.
After unsubstantiated suspicions last year, without any formal protest, that McLaren might be putting water in the rear tyres to cool them down, team boss Zak Brown ostentatiously sipped from a drinking bottle with ‘tire water’ stickers on it.
He also made the point that anyone suspecting his team of illegality should launch a formal protest if they really believed it.
“I’m not suggesting that there’s anything illegal on the car,” Horner, who had Max Verstappen start on pole but finish fourth, told reporters. “Well done to McLaren, they were in a league of their own.
“Of course in Formula 1 there are always going to be questions that are raised.
“[McLaren] did exactly the same about the front suspension on our car last year. So it’s inevitable when you’re running at the front, as we have for the last few years, you always come under more scrutiny.
“McLaren have got the car to beat at the moment, that’s quite clear. They’re going to be tough to beat over the next few races.”
McLaren are already 105 points clear of second-placed Mercedes.
“We’re just not good with the tires over an extended run. And McLaren shows how it’s being done,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.
“They are definitely doing an excellent job by being able to go fast around the corners without overheating them [the tyres]. So this is what we need to look up to and engineer our way out.”
Wolff said the top people at McLaren — Brown, principal Andrea Stella and chief designer Rob Marshall — were “good people with integrity.
“I have no doubt that these guys stay within the rules. It’s just really good development. They’ve understood how to manage the tire much better than everybody else. And in my opinion, it’s totally legit.
“It started two years ago in Austria. They brought an update that was much better than they expected. And part of the development since then was also nurturing the tyres in the right way.”
Wolff said Mercedes needed to find out where to focus their development attention and identify the main performance contributors.
“And we are on it. Completely on it. So it’s not like we are looking at it like Bambi in front of the headlights. We are on it. We are in there. We are trying to find out, we are experimenting. And we are going to definitely be able to challenge.”
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