Horner: We were winning by 25s, Domenicali asking us to slow down

To be honest, one really does not know what to feel when reading such a statement, whether to be disgusted by the fact that a team is asked to slow down for the sake of the show when it was up to other teams to do better, or to just reflect on how brutal F1 can be as things can change fast.

Well McLaren did their homework and delivered the MCL38, a car able to challenge the RB20, the latest version in a series of all conquering Red Bull ground effect F1 machinery, and before anyone cries foul it has to be mentioned that the FIA may have played a role in Red Bull's current performance challenges.

We are not suggesting conspiracy theories here, but the RB20 struggled in low speed corners at the Dutch Grand Prix last weekend, just saying.

Now Horner's statement was delivered as the Briton was trying to point out how fast things change in F1, after his star driver Max Verstappen was beaten to the finish line at his home race by Lando Norris with a gap over 20s. Norris was equally dominant in qualifying, taking pole by over three tenths of a second from the Dutchman.

And despite the story this weekend being Norris' dominant showing vs Verstappen's challenging home race, Horner's statement on Domenicali just caught the eye when he was quoted by Motorsport.com, and required touching on first.

"Well, it just shows that things have moved very quickly," he said. "I mean, we were winning races by 20, 25 seconds and Stefano [Domenicali, F1 CEO] was asking us to slow down in the first five races.

"It can change very quickly and that means it can change back the other way as well," Horner added. "We know we've got an issue. You can hear that Max didn't feel that the car was responding to what he wanted. We've obviously got to be able to manifest that into a setup that works these tyres across all conditions.

"McLaren did that with Lando. We weren't able to, but we limited the damage by 'if you can't win it, finish second'," he maintained.

Verstappen insisted there is no need to panic yet, and Horner echoed his sentiments, he explained: "Based on [the] performance, if it was like that at the next nine races, yes, it would be very, very difficult.

"But it's the fourth time this year, only the fourth time, that Max's points lead had reduced. It's only Lando's second win.

"But we know we have to find performance. So we were 78 points, now we're 70 ahead. We want to make sure that we extend the lead, not see it continuously diminish.

"Obviously they made a step a little while ago and their car here particularly with Lando was very impressive. So, we need to understand where and address our deficit," the Red Bull boss concluded.

While Verstappen's 70-point lead in the 2024 F1 Drivers' Championship is probably unsurmountable for Norris, Red Bull are more vulnerable with their 30-point advantage over McLaren in the Constructors' Standings.

An F1 Title double in 2024 may not be achievable for the folks at Milton Keynes.