“Still a virtual world,” Christian Horner refutes Red Bull’s sim drivers’ claim of RB20 proving as dominant as the mighty RB19

The Red Bull F1 team amassed an impressive 21 victories with the RB19 during the 2023 F1 season.

“Still a virtual world,” Christian Horner refutes Red Bull’s sim drivers’ claim of RB20 proving as dominant as the mighty RB19

Christian Horner (Via: IMAGO)

The 2023 F1 season proved an extremely successful year for the Red Bull F1 team. The outfit amassed an impressive 21 wins out of the possible 22 and ahead of the upcoming campaign, a Red Bull sim driver, Jake Dennis has claimed that the RB20 is as fast as the RB19 after driving it in the virtual world.

However, the Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, has made it known that he does not agree with this line of thought. He believes it is very hard to make assumptions about the RB20 until it hits the track at 2024 F1 testing.

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While talking about the same with Planet F1, he said:

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[The sim drivers] are saying it’s evolution, not revolution – it’s a simulator, and still a virtual world. So, of course, you want a correlation between track and simulator, which has tended to be reasonable over the last couple of years.

Looking at the reaction of Horner, it is quite clear that he is not getting over-excited hearing the words of the sim drivers on the RB20. However, he has indicated that he is quite optimistic heading into the 2024 F1 season.

Max Verstappen put the RB19 through the absolute wringer in 2023

While Christian Horner is holding his horses regarding the prospects of RB20 during 2024, one of the main reasons why Red Bull’s RB19 proved extremely successful was because of Max Verstappen. The Dutchman, barring a couple of races, was able to extract the maximum performance out of it.

Max Verstappen (via IMAGO)
Max Verstappen (via IMAGO)

During the 2023 season, Verstappen was single-handedly able to carry the Milton-Keynes-based team as he went on to secure 19 wins in a 22-race season. His teammate, Sergio Perez, chipped in with two Grand Prix wins.

The Red Bull F1 team has been operating on a whole new level since 2022 and considering this, the expectations of the RB20 are also going to be immense. Red Bull will launch its 2024 car on the 15th of February.

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