Red Bull F1 team principal Christian Horner thinks McLaren face a “problem” due to giving their d⛄rivers equal status.

The faster McLarens of168澳洲5最新开奖结果: Lando Norris and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Oscar Piastri chased 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Max Verstappen’s Red Bull for the entire Japa🥀nese Gra🎃nd Prix but were unable to challenge for the win as the reigning world champion masterfully converted his brilliant pole position into his first victory of the 2025 season.

McLaren’s strategy came under fire in Japan after the team opted against trying♛ to undercut Verstappen by pitting Norris a lap earlier. Instead, the two leaders pitted on the same lap, leading to their dramatic near-miss at the end of the pitlane.

Prior to Japan, McLaren’s dri♉vers had taken one win apiece across the opening two rounds in Australia and China.

Horner believes McLaren’s decision to give both drivers equal⛎ treatment could play into Red Bull’s hands when it comes to the drivers’ championship fight, with Verstappen now just one point behind Norris.

"I guess the problem they have is t✅hey have two drivers who are fighting for the drivers' championship,” Horner said.

"Th🐭e difficulty is they've made a bed where they're going to let them race. So that's the compromise that inevitably comes with that."

Asked if Norris could have beaten Verstappenꩵ by pitting one lap earlier, Horner replied: "The undercut was reasonably powerful. There's 'could have, should have, would have', I'm sure, up and down the pitlane.

"I think the majꦡority of the hard work was done on Saturday. I guess 90% of the cars finished in the order that they started in. It was a flat-out sprint race today. There was very low degradation.

"We know the McLarens are ve⛄ry, very fast. And it needed Max🧸 to be inch perfect with two very fast McLarens right behind him.

“For 53 laps he made not a single mistake and had the pace to cover them, keep them out of his DRS. I think that's on🅠e of Max'𝄹s best weekends.”

Could Lando Norris remark come back to haunt him?

Norris𝄹 kicked off the weekend in Japan by boldly stating his belief that McLaren are the only F1 team with “two good drivers at the minute”.

Prior to the track action co💜mmencing, Norris said: “We've seen over the last week and a half, other people saying that they ꦬdon't think they were that far away.

“So as much as🌜 Max might say stuff, his last stint in China was very strong, still not as good as us, but it was a lot more competit𓂃ive.

“I saw [🐭Ferrari team boss] Fred Vasseur said that he thinks that Ferrari should be competing against us and a lot more up there. In fact, they beat us in the sprint, and they qualified🐠 ahead of us [in the sprint], so [we’re] not that far ahead of them.

“People love to be saying that [but it’s] because we literally are the only team that has two g♛ood drivers at the minute. That's theಌ big difference.

“If one of u🐻s was doing a lot worse, or one of us was not as strong, we would be...the [Shanghai] sprint Oscar was, what second or third, and I was already eighth, but you'd have that a lot more often, like you do with Ferrari, or lꩵike you do with Red Bull. Max is up there, and you have the other driver a lot further back.

“So I think just the fact we have two good drivers is honestly making the biggest difference, because in certain cases I don’t thin🗹k we necessarily had the quickest one where there was a sprint last weekend in the qualifying or the race, but the fact that we have just two good drivers pushing each other makes just a bigger difference th🐠an people expect and take acknowledgement for.

“So, do I agree we have the best car? Yes, and it's nice to say that we know. I have not had that bef🥀ore in Formula 1.

“Max has had his time of having🉐 the best car by a long way, and now🍰 it's our chance, you know, and it's our turn.

“That's the game, you try and get every advantage possible and McLaren have done a very good job to beat the rest and make it better than everyone else🍌 so we’ll take the advantage while we can, but the others are certainly not that far behind.”