Christian Horner reacts to Zak Brown’s mocking ‘tyre water’ bottle in Miami

Christian Horner has responded to Zak Brown’s cheeky jab - a water bottle labelled ‘tyre water’ - which poked fun at Red Bull’s recent accusations.

Red Bull have been perplexed by McLaren’s superior tyre management since the end of last season.

It led to wild suggestions that the Woking outfit were using water-cooling tricks to cool down the tyres and thus help them manage them during the race.

In Miami, once in clean air, the McLaren duo were over one second faster than the rest of the field.

Whenever track temperatures are high, McLaren’s advantage over their competitors increases.

After the race, Max Verstappen described McLaren’s tyre management as “incredible”.

When asked if McLaren’s advantage was down to the tyres, Verstappen said: “A lot, but I think also it’s in general, pure performance of the car.

“But also yeah, the management they have on their tyres is incredible.”

On Friday in Miami, Brown was seen on the McLaren pit wall with a water bottle labelled “tyre water”.

Horner responded to Brown’s cheeky ‘tyre water’ stunt by saying, “There are always going to be questions that are raised” when one F1 team is dominating.

“Of course, in F1, there are always going to be questions that are raised,” he said to media in Miami, where Crash.net were present.

“They did exactly the same about the front suspension on our car last year. So it’s inevitable when you’re running at the front as we have for the last quite a few years, you always come under more scrutiny.

“So that’s part and parcel of F1. And in many respects, for the FIA, the teams, all of the teams, do the vast majority of the work, because, of course, their resource is far greater, and there’s always a competitor analysis going on across all of the teams.”

Even though the rules are changing for next year, Horner is keen to understand where McLaren’s advantage is coming from.

“Obviously, McLaren is the standout car,” he added.

“They had the kind of advantage that we saw a couple of years ago, and they’re obviously doing a very good job in managing temperatures and, particularly, I think if you look at the end of the medium tyre stint, that was probably where they were the most competitive.

“So that’s what we need to focus on. I think we had brake issues that have compounded the problem in the race, but that’s what we need to understand.”