The Red Bull team principal believes “things can change” and Red Bull must not get “carried away” by its superb early 2023 F1 form, as he expects his rivals, especially Ferrari and Mercedes, to catch up in the development race.
Photo Credit: Oracle Red Bull Racing
Red Bull has had a near perfect start to the 2023 Formula 1 season, with four 1-2 finishes in the first five races and scored a total of 224 points out of 235 possible after the first five races, making it the most successful start Red Bull has ever had to an F1 season.
This has triggered comments, more notably from Mercedes’ driver George Russell, that Red Bull will go on to win every race this season. When asked about this on an interview with the Financial Times, Red Bull team principal and CEO Christian Horner has denied that such a feat is feasible given how many variables there are in a grand prix season, especially towards the end:
“I think that’s a massively tall order,” he said when asked about winning every race of the 2023 season. “I mean, you’ve got 23 events, street circuits, there’s gonna be weather that turns up.
“There’s gonna be reliability, strategy, an element of luck. So I think to win 23 races is unimaginable.
“We’ve won the first five [races] and that already feels like it’s by far the best start we’ve ever had to a grand prix season. We just to keep that going as long as we can, take one race at a time and not think about trying to win 23 races.”
When asked if it will require somewhat of a catastrophic set of events for the team not to win given their current pace advantage over the rest of the field, Horner said it won’t be necessary, as the field will start to converge once the development race gets underway during the European part of the season, saying he fully expects Mercedes and Ferrari to “turn up” at some point:
“There’s always things that can change,” he said. “We’re now heading back into the European season, where it’s the first round [in which] the big upgrades are coming, and if you believe Mercedes they have a completely new car coming, Ferrari have upgrades coming and the competition will start to come through.
“It is still early days. I mean, it’s very easy to get carried away with what’s going on here and now, but there’s the developments that are coming in the pipeline I’m sure with other teams that are only going to converge the grid.”
Horner said that despite only his team winning at the present, there’s still a point of interest for fans wanting to see racing at the very front of the grid: the battle between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. The two Red Bull drivers have been very closely matched this season – bar Perez’s dire Melbourne weekend – and are fighting for the world championship:
“That’s always an endless debate,” he admitted when asked about the fans losing interest when there’s one dominant squad. “I think what’s interesting this year is the dynamic between the two team-mates where Max [Verstappen] has won three races and Sergio [Perez] has won two races, and there’s 14 points difference between the two, so how’s that gonna play out?
“It’s going to be interesting to see that intrateam dynamic, and as I say, I’m sure that the others are gonna turn up at some point.”
Managing the dynamic between two drivers fighting for a world championship is nothing new for Horner, who also saw Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber go wheel-to-wheel and clash several times during their bid for the 2010 title. When asked about the difficulties of managing such situation, he says the dynamic between Perez and Verstappen so far is proving to be respectful so far, as they raced “hard but fair” for the win at the last race in Miami, in the closing stages of the race:
“It’s about just being transparent and talking things through, going through what the expectations are and reminding them that they drive for a team, and they represent every team member when they’re driving their cars, they represent all the partners that we represent as well. It’s not just about them.
“Of course, in a briefing or in a meeting, they take that in. But as soon as they put the crash helmet on, that goes stratight out of the other ear,” Horner jokingly said.
“You could see [in Miami] the respect that there was between the two drivers, in the way that they raced with each other.
“They were hard but fair, and gave each other enough space, which is what we asked.”
