"It's very strange": Red Bull's Christian Horner makes his feelings known about McLaren's unique ability to manage tires 

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has confessed that it is a bit strange to see how McLaren can both fire up the tires quickly and manage them better than everyone else on the grid. The start of the 2025 F1 season has shown that the Woking-based squad appears to have a major advantage over everybody else.

That advantage seemingly comes from an innate ability of the car to keep the tires in the working window throughout the lap. McLaren was pulling out tons of lap time over everybody else by making use of this and ultimately this was what helped Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to seal the front row ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

The Dutch driver lost out to the McLaren duo in the third sector where the cars pulled out close to 3 tenths on him and it was entirely down to the ability to keep the tires in the working range. This was evident in the race as well where Max Verstappen struggled with tire wear late in the first stint while Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri pulled away.

This was something that Christian Horner also pointed out after the race when he said that the ability to not only fire up the tires but keep them in the working range longer than anybody else was strange. Talking to the media including RacingNews365, the Red Bull boss said:

"It's different for everyone, isn't it? It's very strange that they can warm up the tires well and still have very little wear. Normally one thing comes at the expense of the other. It seems like they've done a fantastic job on this circuit."

Talking about the race, Horner credited McLaren with having a balanced car, especially in the third sector, he said:

"McLaren definitely has a balanced car, especially in the third sector. Max had a good start, although he got boxed in a bit. Then he made a great overtake on the outside of Oscar Piastri and was able to challenge Lando slightly at first. I just think we used the tyres a lot more, especially in the last sector. The gap then increased and Oscar was able to pass Max."

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Horner explains Red Bull's strategy of going longer for Max Verstappen in the race

During the race when it started to rain, the McLaren driver swiftly jumped into the pits to change to intermediate tires. Max Verstappen on the other hand stayed out on his Red Bull for a couple more laps and then eventually came to the pits. Talking about the thought process behind the strategy that the team implemented, Horner said that the focus was maybe trying to jump Norris in the pits by overcutting him. He said:

"It was initially only wet in the third sector. The first two sectors were fast and it was almost worth it to survive the rain period and take the lead. Eventually Max was able to work his way up to second place and an eight-lap shootout followed."

He added:

"He almost did it, because it looked like Lando was driving a bit more on the limit. He made a mistake in turn six, went half off the track and that gave Max a bit of a chance to close the gap on a track where it is difficult to overtake."

Red Bull does appear to have a deficit of around three-tenths to McLaren over a lap. The team would be hoping to close down the gap if they want to keep the title aspirations alive.