‘It’s flattering’ - Horner unsurprised by McLaren’s choice to copy Red Bull

McLaren’s surge in performance was a major talking point at the British Grand Prix after Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri qualified in the top three.

Norris then took the lead on Lap 1 before settling in behind eventual race winner Max Verstappen.

Piastri would have made it a double-podium for McLaren at Silverstone had it not been for an untimely Safety Car.

Talking about McLaren’s recent upgrades, Horner described it as a “very similar concept”

“It’s a very similar concept,” Horner said as quoted by Speedcafe.

“I was looking at the car on the grid [at Silverstone], and it’s the first time I’ve really seen it this year. You can see the philosophy they’ve borrowed is very similar, that they’ve chosen a similar path.”

Given Red Bull’s dominance in F1 2023, Horner conceded that it’s “inevitable” that other teams would follow suit.

“Yeah, always. It’s flattering, isn’t it,” he added.

“It’s inevitable that will happen, and why wouldn’t you when you’ve got a car that’s performing like ours?

“It’s fairly logical that you would look to emulate it. Which some teams have chosen to do.”

Even though Red Bull have been unchallenged so far, Horner is prepared for things to converge at the front as the season goes on.

“My job is to win, and the one thing we know from this sport is that things will converge,” he added.

“You can already see it starting to happen, and the most important thing to have convergence is stability, and stability of regulations will bring all of the teams much, much closer together.

“You can see it’s already starting to happen. It’s not going to be another seven years of domination.

“The power units are all pretty similar now, and the chassis evolves much, much quicker than the engines do.

“We can already see from the start of the season to now that things are already converging.”