Christian Horner claims Red Bull ‘baffled’ by McLaren’s call to put Lando Norris on softs at British GP

Christian Horner criticized McLaren’s decision to put Lando Norris on soft tires for the final stint of the British GP, describing it as baffling. Norris found him second when Lewis Hamilton pitted to switch from medium to soft tires. Max Verstappen who was third decided to switch to hard tires during his pitstop.

Christian Horner explained that during the practice sessions on Friday, they noticed that the hard tires were more durable and performed better for their car. Due to this, they weren’t too concerned about what tires other teams chose. They were confident that the hard tires were the best option for Max Verstappen. However, to confirm they had some useful data from Sergio Perez’s early performance in the race, which confirmed that the hard tires were working well.

We saw on Friday, the hard tire was more robust and we felt it's better for us. We almost didn’t care what others used; we knew the hard tire was better. Checo's early race data confirmed it the tires performed well.

Christian Horner said, as reported by FORMULA1A.UNO

Christian Horner found it surprising that McLaren, who had a new medium tire available, didn’t use it. He thought the medium tire would have been perfect for the conditions they were racing in. It seemed strange because using the new medium tire could have given McLaren a better performance in the race. Despite having this advantage, they had opted not to run the new medium tire, which didn’t make sense to Horner.

What was baffling for us was McLaren were the only team that had a new medium available to them, and they chose not to run it, which would have been an ideal tyre for those conditions.

Christian Horner added

Christian Horner claims Max Verstappen was quicker than Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris at the final stint

Christian Horner observed that Mercedes had always performed well in cooler conditions. When it started to rain, Lewis Hamilton really picked up speed and performed better. At the same time, McLaren also started to perform exceptionally well. Both teams managed to overtake Red bull. According to Horner, the situation kept changing depending on the weather and track conditions. This constant shift in performance made the race very dynamic and unpredictable.

I think the Mercedes has always been strong in the cooler conditions. Then Lewis came alive, I think, as it started to rain. And then the McLaren really came alive. And they passed both of us. So it was moving around, depending on what was, what was going on.

Christian Horner explained

Further, Horner explained that in those changing conditions, he expected Max Verstappen to perform exceptionally well. However, the Red Bull driver was having a tough time during that lap. He mentioned, as the track started to dry out, everything changed. Suddenly, Verstappen’s speed returned, and he was way faster than Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris. Max Verstappen was six or seven-tenths of a second per lap quicker than both the rivals ahead of him.

And in those conditions, you’d expect Max to then really come alive as well. But he was really struggling at that point. And then as the circuit dried out, or started drying out. Bang, the pace arrived back, and we were at times six or seven-tenths a lap quicker than Lewis and Lando at that point

Christian Horner added

Certainly, Christian Horner believed that if the weather had been on their side, they would have passed Hamilton much earlier because they were very quick. Fans were still happy with Max Verstappen’s performance. Starting from fourth and finishing second was clearly a result of the Dutchman’s skills.

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