The McLaren team delivered a crushing performance at the F1 Miami GP, stunning the paddock and sending Red Bull searching for answers. Max Verstappen‘s pole position advantage evaporated in race conditions that left Christian Horner admitting that the Papaya team is the team to beat on the grid.
Saturday’s qualifying session painted a deceptive picture of the weekend when Verstappen narrowly edged out edged out Lando Norris for the pole position. However, his Red Bull was no match to the McLarens once they took the lead.
Despite McLaren’s apparent F1 qualifying shortfall, Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner acknowledged the Woking outfit underperformed on Saturday:
“I think that, theoretically, if they’d have put their theoreticals together in quali yesterday, they should have been ahead of us. I think Max did an outstanding job and was able to get every ounce of performance, and arguably they underperformed yesterday.”
Come Sunday, McLaren’s true pace advantage materialised spectacularly. Oscar Piastri led home a 1-2, with teammate Norris following in second and George Russell completing the podium for Mercedes. The Australian’s victory margin over Russell, a staggering 37.6 seconds, highlighted the gulf in performance between McLaren and the rest of the F1 field.
Verstappen, despite starting from pole, quickly fell out of contention for victory. His aggressive early defence against the McLarens, while was impressive to watch, proved counterproductive as it meant he lost nearly 6 seconds of his race time in the process. This meant that he missed finishing on the podium and had to settle for fourth.
Horner shares that McLaren F1 have a bigger advantage in the race
The Miami heat exposed Red Bull’s vulnerability in managing tyre temperatures, a crucial weakness McLaren has expertly capitalised on. When questioned about the disparity between qualifying and race performance, Horner said:
“I think the advantage is bigger in the race, isn’t it? Because everything gets super hot in the race and runs at a much bigger temperature, so the advantage will always be bigger in the race than it is in qualy.”
This thermal sensitivity appears to be circuit-specific, with Horner drawing comparisons to earlier races:
“I think it’s circuit-specific. I think we know that these tyres are very sensitive to temperature. We’re running hotter here than we did in Jeddah, and it’s small increments, so things can change very quickly. When you look at the race traces of all the other cars, it looks like they were all complaining or having similar issues. It’s just [that] McLaren have managed to manage that situation better.”
Despite the performance deficit, Verstappen’s opening stint demonstrated the champion’s fighting spirit. Horner praised his driver’s efforts:
“I was actually surprised that Max was able to hold them back for circa 14 laps or 15. I thought it was a very brave display. Arguably, that may have hurt our own race because you’re fighting hard, your tyres are getting hot, but you’re leading the Grand Prix, you’ve got to go for it. I thought he did an outstanding job to keep Oscar behind as long as he did, and then Lando.”
Horner confirms there is no quick fix in sight for them
With calculations suggesting McLaren holds a 0.2-0.3 second advantage in both qualifying and race pace, Red Bull faces a significant development challenge. When asked about potential solutions to their tyre management issues, Horner dismissed the notion of a simple fix:
“I don’t think there’s a Eureka moment, but I think it’s very fine. Because if you look at, as Andrew said in Jeddah, the race pace and the degradation we had there was better than, or at least the same and marginally better than McLaren. Two weeks later, they haven’t brought a huge amount of different car specifications. It’s more circuit specific that has exposed these issues.”
As F1 returns to Europe for the upcoming triple-header, Red Bull must find answers quickly. Horner’s assessment of the current competitive order was unambiguous:
“McLaren have got the car to beat at the moment, that’s quite clear. So they’re going to be tough to beat over the next few races.”
The Woking outfit holds a massive 105 point advantage in the standings over their nearest rival, Mercedes and over 140 points on Red Bull. The Austrian team have everything to do this season and need to catch up if they wish to win their seventh constructor’s title.
