Red Bull, today, is a strong team with blunt weapons. McLaren has become the reference of today’s Formula 1 and in Baku, thanks to the victory of Oscar Piastri and the fourth place of Lando Norris, it grabbed the first position in the Constructors’ World Championship. Something that hasn’t happened for over 10 years.
The MCL38s are now the benchmark cars and both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have won 2 races each. A great thing for the Woking team, which is now in the lead, launched towards the Constructors’ world championship. But it is not as far as the pursuit of the Drivers’ world championship is concerned.
Max Verstappen’s closest pursuer, Lando Norris still has 59 points to make up on the Dutchman and, although McLaren has stressed that from now on Piastri will help Lando if needed, the Australian wins and is in great form.
Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal, having no cards to play on the track, tries to use psychology. The dualism between Norris and Piastri, despite the now famous Papaya Rules, could perhaps be the only flaw capable of making McLaren make mistakes at a time when it seems to be very much on the way to at least a 2024 title.
“I think Piastri is causing them problems because he’s winning races. And he’s doing a great job. It was like when Daniel Ricciardo came to us, he was clearly supposed to be Sebastian Vettel’s number two, and that year he won three races to Sebastian’s none. Sometimes that gives you a headache.”
McLaren team celebrates Oscar Piastri’s race win, McLaren F1 Team
Photo credit: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images
“They certainly taught Oscar with the expectation, as Mercedes did with George and Ferrari did with Carlos, of having a main asset and a support asset, and obviously when the second driver starts to outperform the first, you tend to have a big headache.”
Horner emphasizes how, in his opinion, the best strategy is not to have 2 drivers of the same caliber in the team. Better to have two drivers with well-defined tasks from the beginning or, at least, define the roles halfway through the season so as not to compromise the pursuit of possible titles.
“Having two very strong drivers is a problem to manage, a nice one. But also difficult, because it divides the team and the rules between them become complicated. Everyone probably knows who is number one and number two, but if you are not in the front line with the drivers, you end up getting confused.”
“So I think in a race, any race, obviously at the start of the season everything is open, but certainly when you get to about halfway through the season, you have to choose the rider you want to back, especially if you’re fighting for the World Championship.”
In short, having lost their technical and performance strength, the psychological war against their direct rivals begins in Milton Keynes. At McLaren, this McLaren, they are not so used to certain pressures. We will see if these words will have an effect or if, instead, Andrea Stella’s men will be able to be superior and complete the great journey they began several months ago.
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