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Horner sends a warning to McLaren: 'Got to put your eggs in one basket'
McLaren were the talking point of the Hungarian Grand Prix. They achieved their first 1-2 finish since 2021, with Oscar Piastri sealing his maiden F1 win. However, in spite of this, their decisions over their pit stop strategy, and then letting Piastri past his teammate Lando Norris have been both criticised and questioned. Christian Horner is the latest to offer his perspective.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Red Bull team principal Horner offered his insight into the situation. The Brit revealed what he would have done if he was in McLaren team boss Andrea Stella's position: "Absolutely, I would have kept Lando in front," he said. "Lando is the experienced driver. He's there as the number one driver, I would assume. And they've done the hard work."
"It's standard practice to give the lead driver the first stop so they could have done that quite easily with Oscar but they gave a two lap undercut to Lando so they obviously wanted him ahead of Oscar, having put him ahead. It is then tough on the driver to say actually we want you now to drop behind your teammate," Horner explained.
Does McLaren's decision help Verstappen?
Just 76 points separate the world champion from Norris. Had Norris won on Sunday, he would have achieved a total of 25 points, rather than 18. Those extra seven points could have been substantial. Asked whether this could be a gift to Verstappen, who is looking to win his fourth championship, Horner said: "Well if this championship's lost by seven points at the end of the year."
Horner then made it clear that McLaren need to make a decision soon over whether Norris is their lead driver, particularly to avoid a repeated situation in the future. "Every point counts at the end of the day and different teams go racing a different way, but Lando is the closest challenger and you've got to put your eggs in one basket at one point," he concluded.
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