Having consistently questioned the legality of the McLaren, Christian Horner argues that a dominant car will always raise suspicion.
Of course, the Red Bull boss talks from experience for during the Austrian outfit’s two periods of domination questions were asked and checks were made as is nearly always the case with cars that are clearly in a different league to their rivals. Indeed, over the last couple of decades, as the stakes steadily increased, questioning the legality of the winning machine has been almost customary.
Having won five of this year’s six races, and with some still doubting the legality of the McLaren’s rear wing, concern has been raised that the Woking team has been putting water inside its tyres in a bid to cool them, the team’s tyre management clearly better than that of its rivals.
Over the Miami weekend, Zak Brown had a drinks container prominently on show on the pit-wall, the bottle clearly labelled “tire water”.
Asked about it by Sky Sports, Brown said: “It tastes great,” he laughed.
Asked if it referred to the speculation, he added: “It might have something to do with it, just having a bit of fun. Andrea is way too serious for this stuff, so it’s my job.
“There’s been a team that has that theory,” her continued, “but it’s a pretty big stretch I don’t think it would be very wise to do, so hey, we’re just focused on ourselves.”
The American then said that if anyone really feels that anything illegal is being done they should lodge a protest.
“I’m not suggesting that there’s anything illegal on the car,” insisted Christian Horner. “Well done to McLaren, they were in a league of their own,” he added.
“Of course in Formula 1 there are always going to be questions that are raised,” he continued. “McLaren did exactly the same about the front suspension on our car last year.
“It’s inevitable when you’re running at the front, as we have for the last few years, you always come under more scrutiny,” he said. “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.”
“We’re just not good with the tyres over an extended run,” said Toto Wolff. “And McLaren shows how it’s being done. They are definitely doing an excellent job by being able to go fast around the corners without overheating them. So this is what we need to look up to and engineer our way out.
“I have no doubt that these guys stay within the rules,” he continued, having praised (team boss) Andrea Stella and (chief designer) Rob Marshall. “It’s just really good development. They’ve understood how to manage the tyre much better than everybody else. And in my opinion, it’s totally legit.
“It started two years ago in Austria,” he added, referring to the beginning of the Woking team’s revival. “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.
“We are on it,” he insisted, “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.”
