Horner: Team orders could give McLaren ‘headaches’

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes rivals McLaren could still face “confusion” and “headaches” over team orders before the end of the season.

McLaren unseated Red Bull at the top of the constructors’ standings at Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix after Oscar Piastri won the race and Lando Norris beat Max Verstappen to fourth place while Sergio Pérez crashed out.

Norris is still 59 points behind Verstappen in the drivers’ championship with seven races remaining, but he has closed the gap by 19 points at the last three races.

Ahead of the Baku race weekend, McLaren said it would prioritise Norris over Piastri in 50/50 situations to boost Norris’ title chances, something Horner believes has only led to further confusion between the two McLaren drivers.

“Usually those things are dealt with behind closed doors,” the Red Bull team principal said. “I’m not actually sure what those rules are. There still seems confusion.

“Every team is different. Our rules of engagement are very clear and what the focus until the end of the year is.

“We’ve got a driver that’s fighting for a world championship. It’s a team sport. So it’s very clear that Checo’s job is to support Max until the end of the year.”

Horner expressed his surprise that McLaren had not thrown its full support behind Norris earlier in the season.

“Different teams operate in different ways,” Horner said. “But when you’ve got an asset like Max Verstappen, you don’t make him a No. 2 driver.

“Lando Norris, they are paying five times what they pay Oscar, so I would assume that he would be their No. 1 driver, or the biggest asset. The confusion comes when you are not upfront from the beginning about what your plans are.”

The Red Bull boss believes Piastri’s strong performances are making McLaren’s situation complicated, in the same way Daniel Ricciardo’s arrival at Red Bull alongside four-time champion Sebastian Vettel in 2014 created awkward situations for him.

“I think the other one [Piastri] is causing them headaches because he’s winning races and he’s doing a very good job,” Horner added.

“It was like when Daniel Ricciardo came to us, he was clearly supposed to be the No. 2 to Sebastian Vettel, and he won three races that year to Sebastian’s none. Sometimes it causes you a headache like that.

“For sure they took Oscar with the expectation, as Mercedes probably did with George, and Ferrari probably did with Carlos, that you have a prime asset and a support asset. Of course when the second driver starts outperforming the first driver that’s when you tend to have a headache.

“It becomes a very difficult problem to manage, because you split the team and the rules of engagement become very difficult. Everybody knows probably who the number one and two is, but if you’re not up front with the drivers, you end up with confusion.

“At the beginning of the season obviously it’s all open but certainly when you get to around the half-way point, you’ve got to pick a horse. Especially if you’re in a championship battle.”

McLaren now leads Red Bull by 20 points in the constructors’ championship, ending a run of 55 consecutive races atop the standings for Red Bull.

“We took a big hit in the constructors’ today,” Horner conceded. “We’ve got a 20-point deficit now so we’ve got to attack.

“Still got seven races to go, two sprint races to go. There’s a lot of points up for grabs and a lot of different circuits coming up, so it’s far from over.”