Red Bull’s victories in 2024 have largely been more rewarding for team principal Christian Horner, due to the stronger competition the team has faced this year.
Last season Red Bull won 21 out of 22 races, finishing first and second in the drivers’ championship and wrapping up both titles with multiple rounds to spare. This year has seen four different teams take victories in the opening 12 rounds — Red Bull winning seven of them — and a much closer fight in the constructors’ championship, with Horner (pictured above embracing winner Max Verstappen after the Japanese GP in April) admitting the wins are more satisfying when the battles are so close.
“When we were winning races by 30 or 40 seconds last year it was slightly less stressful, but it’s weird because when you’re winning races by that margin you’re just focused on reliability and other elements,” Horner said. “Now you don’t get a chance to think about reliability, because it’s all about driving flat out.
“I think it’s more rewarding to win a hard-fought race — of course it is. But ’23, I think it’s only with hindsight that it will become a very special year and what was achieved, because it really was, and I keep referring to it as a unicorn year — they don’t exist.
“What we did last year was never achieved before and may never be achieved again. So this is far more normal Formula 1 but we still have an 80-something point lead in the drivers’ championship and have extended our lead in the constructors.’”
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Horner says the drivers are having to push to their limits at all times in such close battles, with small car developments often able to make a big difference this year.
“I think they’re all driving on the limit,” he said. “I think there’s stuff that we have in the pipeline that while we’re at the top of the curve, there are still gains to be had.
“Inevitably when it closes up, it’s down to the marginal fine details that make the difference. The form’s moving around a bit. Mercedes were strong [at Silverstone]. McLaren were strong [in Austria]. We won the week before in Barcelona.”