Christian Horner is not hopeful of Red Bull stepping up on the gas in 2024 to find more development

Christian Horner believes Red Bull tapped into their best efforts in 2023 while developing the RB-19 and now it will be difficult for them to surpass that.

Christian Horner is not hopeful of Red Bull stepping up on the gas in 2024 to find more development

Christian Horner (Via: Imago)

The 2023 Formula 1 season went exceptionally well for Red Bull and their racers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. The Austrian team picked up all but one of the Grand Prix victories since Singapore turned out to be a horrible experience for them while Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was seen to flourish under the pressure. At the end of the season, Red Bull finished with 351 points ahead of the rest of the grid, thanks to the incredible talents of Max and Checo as well as their challenger for the ’23 season–the RB-19.

But RBR Team Principal Christian Horner is now wary of being able to outperform their 2023 season. The Briton, who was recently awarded the honor of the Commander of the British Empire (CBE), commented on his doubts about his team delivering an even better performance than what they did last year.

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As the 2023 season is over and done with, all the teams are now cooped up at their headquarters brainstorming ways to develope the perfect racecar which can help their Championship campaign in the upcoming year. But as for Red Bull, their Chief Technological Officer Adrian Newey had already built the perfect ‘rocketship’ of a car last year. Christian Horner believes there is no outdoing whatever his team did in 2023.

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We have got up the [development] curve quicker than others, but we are seeing diminishing returns. And with the lack of wind tunnel time we’ve had, even though we transitioned early, we still had less time in practice than a great many of our opponents. So [we] have had to be very frugal and selective.
Horner commented on Red Bull’s 2024 woes, via LastWordOnSports.

Christian Horner recently got rewarded by the British royalty for his sports contributions

Christian Horner has dedicated his life to Formula 1, and he has seen incredible returns too. Under his leadership, Red Bull have had their racer Sebastian Vettel dominate the pinnacle of motorsports for 4 long years, and Max Verstappen has been doing that for the last three years too. Due to the enormous contributions Horner has made to the sporting world, the British Royal Family decided to recognize his efforts by awarding him with a Commander of the British Empire tag at their New Year’s Eve Honors event.

Christian Horner
Christian Horner (via Imago)

Interestingly, Christian Horner already had the title of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) but the CBE comes before OBE and MBE. As per the royal hierarchy, CBE comes only second to Knighthood or Damehood. And in the recent Formula 1 grid, there is a Knight as well since Lewis Hamilton was bestowed with the incredible honor by the then-Prince Charles in 2021.

In other news, Christian Horner recently spoke out about Red Bull using Max Verstappen for PR. Formula 1 teams have, in recent years, gone big on reaching out to the common public, and they have done this by usingtheir racers as the face of their Championship campaign. Various drivers like Daniel Ricciardo have even become known as media sweethearts. But Horner has claimed RBR never aims to use Max, their marqueé driver, for PR gains.

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