Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes it is impossible for his team to do better that what they are achieving now, but insists they need to keep riding the success wave as long as possible.
Red Bull have won all but one race in the 2023 Formula 1 season and after their terrible Singapore Grand Prix, bounced back with style in last week’s Japanese Grand Prix to take their sixth F1 Constructors’ Title with six races remaining.
The Milton Keynes squad have been the epitome of F1 dominance in 2023, firing on all cylinders. Their RB19 is the class of the field, while Max Verstappen is in top form going through the sport’s records, breaking them one after the other, setting new benchmarks as he heads to his third F1 Drivers’ Crown.
With Mercedes’ days of dominance now seemingly a distant memory, Horner believes Red Bull may not be able to replicate a season like 2023, but should target to extend their streak as long as possible.
“I think a repeated season like this is, you know, it’s a golden moment for the team,” he said. “To do better than we’re doing I think it’s impossible. So, I think we’re riding a wave and of course we want to try and ride that wave as long as we can.
“But Formula 1 is a fast-moving business. You see how quickly teams move up, move down and Singapore if nothing else demonstrates that there can be zero complacency, that we have to keep pushing the boundaries,” Horner explained.
The Briton hailed his squad for continuing to push after a successful 2022 F1 campaign, and even improving in that, he said: “Last year was a very strong year for us.
“But to have kept that momentum, rolling with the challenges that we’ve had is testimony to all the men and women in the team that have worked tirelessly to produce a car as competitive as we’ve had, that the drivers and particularly Max has been able to make such good use of,” he added.
Red Bull have been consistent while others haven’t
While Red Bull have been the fastest team in 2023, several teams took turn on the best-of-the-rest status, starting with Aston Martin, going through Mercedes and Ferrari, while now McLaren emerged as the second fastest team.
Horner believes that has been a helping factor for his team’s dominance, he said: “The field has been moving around behind us. One week it’s McLaren, next week it’s Ferrari, the next week it’s Mercedes.
“We’ve been 90% consistent at the front of the field and we’ve been fairly limited in the amount of development that we’ve done on the car.
“The regulations are stable, so we have the same gearbox on the car, we have the same chassis largely as last year so an awful lot of is carried over.
“The team has done a great job in efficiently developing the car and reducing the weight, and to maintain this kind of performance across the variance of circuits that we’ve had,” Horner concluded.
Red Bull’s 318-point-gap in the 2023 F1 Constructors’ Standings over second-placed Mercedes has mathematically ended the fight over the Constructors’ Trophy. Up next, Verstappen’s third F1 Drivers’ Championship, which he can clinch at the upcoming Qatar Grand Prix weekend.