Christian Horner has warned McLaren that at some point, “self-interest will always outweigh team interest” as Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris go wheel-to-wheel for the World title.

And Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will be the one who benefits, as he did at Imola.

Christian Horner declares: That’s the conflict

Although Piastri lined up on pole position for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, he was second as the drivers made their way through Tamburello on the opening lap as Verstappen swooped around the outside to take the lead.

The Red Bull driver didn’t look back as he built up a healthy advantage and was more than 20 seconds up the road when the Safety Car came out on lap 46 when Kimi Antonelli parked his Mercedes on the side of the circuit.

That bunched up the field, Verstappen heading the queue ahead of Piastri, who was on old tyres, and Norris, who had pitted for fresh rubber.

“I see Oscar’s tyres are pretty dead,” came the not-so-cryptic message from Norris to the McLaren pit wall. “If we want any chance of going for the lead, we know what to do.”

McLaren, though, didn’t do it, instead leaving it to the drivers to sort out themselves.

By the time Norris passed Piastri, it was too late for the Briton to fight Verstappen as the Dutchman had pulled six seconds clear of the feuding McLaren team-mates. He won the Grand Prix, the first time since Japan that he took points off championship leader Piastri.

More on Red Bull’s victory at Imola

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👉 Missed McLaren chance? Data sheds further light on Imola strategy

All in all, it was a day that McLaren’s strategy, from Piastri’s early pit stop to the team’s lack of team orders, played to Red Bull’s advantage.

Horner believes there could be more moments further down the line as Piastri and Norris, separated by 13 points in the Drivers’ Championship, squabble over the World title.

“Oscar had obviously pushed quite hard early on and you could see he was starting to get a little bit of graining on that front-right,” Horner told the media, including PlanetF1.com.

“And so, it was borderline whether it was going to be a two-stop or one-stop. They obviously pulled the trigger on the two-stop, but it dropped you out because of the length of the pit lane here being 27 seconds.

“It put him into a world of pain traffic-wise. And so Max was then able to keep running and the deg was super low. And even with Lando in clean air behind, we were able to manage quite easily a nine-, nine-and-a-half-second gap.

“The VSC came out, and the pit stop was pretty straightforward. Oscar pitted again on his strategy, which sort of neutralised him, but by that time he’d used both of his hard tyres.

“And then that final Safety Car, obviously Max pitted, Lando pitted, but it dropped him behind Oscar, which was, you know, you’ve got two drivers that are fighting for a World Championship.

“At some point, self-interest will always outweigh team interest. That’s the conflict. So, they did a good job to not make contact. It was commendable that they were allowed to race, but you could see it got pretty close.”

Verstappen remains P3 in the standings after his second Grand Prix win of the F1 2025 season, now just 22 points down on Piastri.

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