Rivals Horner and Wolff hail Norris as new title contender
Christian Horner and Toto Wolff found themselves in rare agreement as the rival team principals hailed the progress of Lando Norris and McLaren over the past 12 months and declared the Briton a title contender.
Max Verstappen won at Imola on Sunday but Red Bull’s world champion driver was chased down in the final laps of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix by Norris, who finished 0.7sec behind and believed he could have won with one or two more laps.
Norris won the round before, in Miami, and with the upgrades McLaren brought there now applied to both cars they also returned fourth place at Imola for Norris’s teammate, Oscar Piastri. They looked to have outpaced Ferrari as the second-quickest team and are nipping at Red Bull’s heels.
Horner, the Red Bull team principal, believes McLaren are their leading rivals for the title after the stunning reversal of fortunes. “Arguably over the last couple of races they have been the main competitor,” he said. “They have definitely added performance to their car, so we expect them to be competitive at all circuits.”
When asked if he felt McLaren were now in the title fight, Horner said: “You can’t take anything for granted, we certainly don’t, the margins are very fine. The look of the cars is converging, the performance is converging. We will see more races like Sunday’s with very fine margins.”
Horner’s words were echoed by Wolff, his Mercedes counterpart, an unusual turn of events given the pair are usually engaged in a war of words. “It’s fantastic recovery story, when you look at where McLaren were 12 months ago,” he said. “We have to have respect how they have done things and more competition at the front is good for the sport.”
At the start of 2023, McLaren had opened with a car that was woefully off the pace, with Norris finishing 17th in the opening two races. However, a series of upgrades mid-season moved them into contention for podiums and this year they have cemented their place at the front of the grid.
Wolff ’s Mercedes team have some way to go to catch Red Bull, McLaren or Ferrari, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finishing in sixth and seventh at Imola.