Rivals hope Red Bull will ignore boss’ ‘room for improvement’ quip

London — Red Bull principal Christian Horner joked after Formula One’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that with his team winning 21 of 22 races in 2023 there is room for improvement in 2024.

If the quip raised a hollow laugh after the most dominant season ever, with triple world champion Max Verstappen setting a string of records including 10 wins in a row and 19 in total, it was because it contained an underlying truth.

Red Bull will hope to defend their titles in 2024, when there will be a record 24 races, with an even better car.

“This car is going to go down in the history books as a special car,” Horner said of the RB19. “To have won 21 races out of the 22, just missing out on Singapore, it leaves room for improvement.

“You’re always looking to find marginal gains. It’s never enough. We know our opponents. This will have motivated them more than ever to come back at us hard and nothing stands still in this sport. Everything moves so quickly.

“You could see as we weren’t developing, the opposition coming closer. We’re going to hopefully take these lessons out of this car and apply it in our 20th car, RB20, next year and try to defend these two titles.”

The question on everyone’s lips is how much their rivals can raise their game. The gulf between Red Bull and closest competitor Mercedes was staggering — it stretched over more points than the total earned by the once dominant second-place team, who failed to win a race for the first time since 2011.

Verstappen alone, with a record 575 points, scored more than Mercedes’s 409. Sergio Perez was eclipsed by his teammate, with plenty of speculation about his Red Bull future earlier in 2023, yet still finished runner-up.

“He’ll take a bit of time this winter to reflect on where he needs to improve and I’m sure he’ll come back fighting next year,” Horner said of the Mexican.

So dominant was Verstappen on Sunday, winning from pole with the fastest lap, that he delayed making his last pit stop to ensure he became the first Formula One driver to lead for 1,000 racing laps in a season.

“There is a Mount Everest to climb to catch up with Red Bull,” Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff told reporters on Sunday.

His seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton agreed: “Red Bull won by 17sec and they have not touched the car since August or July, so you can guess where they are going to be next year.”

The next major rule change is not until 2026, but Formula One boss Stefano Domenicali pointed to McLaren, the most improved team after an uncompetitive start, as an example of the jump that could be made.

He also looked at the qualifying time sheets for further support. Despite their dominance, Red Bull took “only” 14 poles from 22 races.

The difference was that Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc failed to win from any of his five, while Verstappen triumphed 12 times out of 12.

“You saw yesterday [Saturday] in [first] qualifying, 20 cars [separated by] less than one second. So in qualifying we are close. Of course, race pace is different,” Domenicali told Sky Sports TV.

“This will be the major thing we are going to see different next year.”

Reuters