Horner: Tough to repeat ‘insanity’ of 2023 season

ABU DHABI — Christian Horner believes his Red Bull team has hit its zenith after winning 21 of this year’s 22 races, saying that he fully expects rival teams to close the gap next year.

Red Bull’s success this year has been rooted in its superior interpretation of technical regulations introduced at the start of 2022, leading to the most dominant season by any team in F1 history in 2023.

Underlining the extent of the team’s success, Max Verstappen, who secured his third world championship at the Qatar Grand Prix in October, scored more points on his own than the Mercedes team managed in second place in the standings.

But Horner doubts a repeat of the 2023 season will even be possible for Red Bull and fully expects the performance of rival teams to converge towards the champions.

“We saw that in 2020 with Mercedes, if you remember that was their most dominant year and yet we were able to beat them in 2021,” Horner said.

“There was a subtle rule change [that year], but I think nothing stands still and we had competitors coming closer at different venues [this year] and I’m sure concepts will converge, stable regulations always concertina, so I don’t think we will ever be able to repeat the season we’ve had.

“Hopefully we can take the lessons from RB19 and apply them into RB20 and come up with a car that we can defend these titles with.”

Red Bull only missed out on one victory this year when the team struggled to find the correct setup for the demands of the Singapore street circuit.

No team has ever won every race in a season — McLaren previously came closest in 1988 with 15 wins from 16 – and when Horner was asked if the single missed result annoyed him, he said: “No, it leaves you humbled that there’s still something to strive for. It’s a useful lesson that things can change quickly.

“Singapore was a standout weekend. You guys [the media] have been asking me since race three if I think we can win all the races this year. To win 21 out of 22 races is insanity.

“For Max to have led over 1000 laps, for him to have won 19 races… we have broken McLaren’s record from 1988, broken Seb’s record [of nine straight victories] with Max from 2013, the win ratios, all the percentages that he’s hit… this car will go down in history, certainly for a considerable period of time, as the most dominant car in Formula One history.”