Guenther Steiner says what McLaren must do ‘at some stage’ in Red Bull title battle

Follow us on Google Discover

McLaren faces a close title battle with Red Bull in the final six races of the 2024 season, having overtaken them in the Constructors’ Championship.

McLaren has been the fastest car over the last seven races while Red Bull has struggled to finish on the podium, with Sergio Perez also continuing to underperform compared to Max Verstappen.

This has played into the hands of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, whose consistent results enabled them to leapfrog the Milton Keynes squad after the Azerbaijan GP.

The two teams are separated by 41 points and face a development race heading into the next event at Austin, where it is expected Red Bull will unleash brand new upgrades for the RB20.

While in the title battle with Red Bull, former F1 team principal Guenther Steiner has told McLaren what they need to do ‘at some stage’ to show they are the best when speaking to CityAM.

Guenther Steiner says McLaren must ‘believe they are the man’

McLaren has been the benchmark since they delivered an upgrade midway through the season that put them on the path to their current success.

The team also has more updates in the pipline in a bid to retain their advantage, although it will take some beating after Norris comfortably finished 20 seconds ahead of Verstappen in Singapore.

With their form on track being the best it has been for over 10 years, Steiner believes McLaren should start to do one thing to asset their dominance over Red Bull.

“McLaren are very humble, which is nice, but at some stage you need to believe that you are the man. You cannot play the underdog team when you’re the best,” said Steiner.

How can McLaren win a title this year?

McLaren is going for its first Constructors’ Championship since the 1998 season and stands a good chance of achieving it with the consistency of Norris and Piastri.

Verstappen can still afford to finish second at all remaining events without the fastest lap bonus point to claim his fourth Drivers’ title, but McLaren’s points gap to Red Bull is healthy enough for them to afford a few problems.

Helmut Marko has said that Red Bull is now solely focused on retaining the Drivers’ Championship with Verstappen, conceding that the Constructors bonus might be hard to win back.

Red Bull’s real threat could be Ferrari in the final races after Charles Leclerc found decent form prior to the current four-week break.