Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has lauded his team for breaking the 35-year-old record for successive victories previously held by McLaren.
Max Verstappen’s victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix was the 12th in a row for Red Bull Racing, dating back to last year’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, taking it one race clear of McLaren’s 1988 record.
The legendary 1988 McLaren MP4/4 won 11 straight grands prix in an almost perfect season in which Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost combined to claim 15 of 16 race victories.
The benchmark has long appeared to be a seemingly untouchable mark of dominance, with several teams having claimed nine or 10 in success before tasting defeat, including Mercedes in the last decade and Ferrari in 2002.
Horner, who has been team principal of Red Bull Racing since its formation in 2005, said the milestone shouldn’t be understated.
“We achieved history today,” he said. “It’s something very special for the whole team, to achieve the record of 12 consecutive grand prix victories.
“To break that record from 1988 — I remember watching Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost and the great McLaren team, at the time led by Ron Dennis. To think it’s taken 35 years but we’re the team that’s managed to break that, particularly with the quality opposition that we’re racing against, is a phenomenal achievement and one that the whole team can be just immensely, immensely proud of.”
Horner also paid tribute to Honda, the team’s engine supplier in all but name, which also powered McLaren to its 1988 feat.
“I think we have to congratulate Honda as well, because they’ve done it twice now,” he said. “They were 35 years apart, but we have to take our hat off to Honda for that contribution for this great result as well.”
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Red Bull Racing has been a Formula 1 frontrunner since it collected its first victory in 2009 and is enjoying its second title-winning spell since. Horner said there was no one reason for the team’s continued success other than the consistent collective pursuit of additional performance.
“The way the team is working, I think it’s all about the details,” he said. “I think we’re leaving no stone unturned at the moment.
“The strategy was strong, the pit stops — today a 1.9s stop the guys put in for Checo, very quick stops again for Max.
“I think you’re seeing the whole team just operating at such a high level. There’s no silver bullet in Formula 1. I think it’s always a culmination of factors that have to come together to achieve these kinds of results.”
The Hungarian Grand Prix was the 11th round of the 22-race season. With Red Bull Racing having claimed all 11 grand prix victories as well as the two sprint victories to date, the prospect of a clean sweep looms as a realistic prospect.
The team has consistently rebuffed suggestions it could maintain a clean sheet as practically impossible given the length of the calendar, and Horner insisted the setting of this latest record hasn’t changed his mind.
“How long can we keep this winning run going? Who knows,” he said. “We’ve got another challenge next weekend — a sprint race, the variable conditions of Spa… Anything can happen. So really we’re just taking it one event at a time.”
If the RB19 is anywhere near as performant as it was in Budapest, where it finished with the largest victory margin since the 2021 Russian Grand Prix, it will have little difficulty stretching its victory streak to 13 races and beyond.
“Once (Verstappen) emerged out of that first turn, he really stamped his authority all over the race and really controlled the race from start to finish,” Horner acknowledged.
“Today we had a phenomenal race car and we were able to convert that into a dominant 1-3. The race pace on the Sunday had been very, very strong. That’s where, obviously, the points are, and that’s where we’re focused.”