Christian Horner and Zak Brown butt heads on controversial McLaren rear wing

Zak Brown has dismissed Christian Horner’s unease at McLaren’s rear wing which is at the centre of controversy in Singapore.

The FIA have passed the rear wing on the MCL38 which caught rivals’ eyes when Oscar Piastri won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

F1’s latest flexi-wing debate has inevitably caught Red Bull’s attention, after they were overtaken in the constructors’ championship by McLaren.

“Obviously it passed the test,” Red Bull team principal Horner told Sky Sports in Singapore.

“As long as the FIA are happy…

“Well, it sets a precedent. We don’t want to rush to design wings that deform like that.

“If it’s deemed okay then everybody will do the same.”

Horner was asked if rivals would replicate the design but he replied: “I’d be surprised if we saw it again.”

McLaren CEO Brown responded to Horner: “He’s spot on. It has been passed by the FIA. These Formula 1 engineers are very clever.

“[Red Bull] have had awesome race cars for the past decade.

“It has passed the test. Good on our team for coming up with something that is high performance.”

Brown added: “It has passed every single test. It’s clever engineering. The FIA is fine with it, so it’s business as usual.

“It’s inevitable now that we’re leading the championship that everyone will look at our car and say ‘we don’t like that’. That’s the nature of the game.”

Sky Sports’ Martin Brundle suggested that McLaren would come under more scrutiny as the constructors’ championship leaders.

“You try to cut down the tall sunflowers,” Brundle said to Brown.

“There are two ways of winning - go faster, or slow the others down.”

Brown replied: “It’s great for the championship. We are at the front. “There are things that work well on our race car.

“Everyone else will try to speed up, and slow us down at the same time.”