Christian Horner DOUBTS Red Bull can keep up their dominance in 2023

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Horner DOUBTS Red Bull can keep up their dominance in 2023

Can Red Bull win every race in 2023? Christian Horner has been giving his honest take...

George Brabner

Saturday 9 September 2023 20:59

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Red Bull have won every race in 2023 so far, but team principal Christian Horner does not believe that the team can take victory in all of the season’s remaining eight races.

Heading into the 2023 season, hopes were high amongst many Formula 1 fans that Ferrari, Mercedes or Aston Martin could challenge Red Bull.

But now, with Max Verstappen’s third world championship and Red Bull’s sixth constructors' title starting to feel inevitable, still no team has been able to conquer the sport's dominant force on a single weekend.

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Despite that, and even in light of Verstappen’s record-breaking tenth consecutive victory secured at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Horner told L’Equipe that he is pessimistic about Red Bull’s chance of sweeping the season.

“We will be beaten. It's inevitable,” he said. “We're just going to try to delay the moment when it happens as much as possible because it will happen.

“As we make the story, I think it's easy to maintain focus. You imagine that over the last 24 races, that is to say, a season, we have won 23 races. Just like what we did in 2013 with Seb [Vettel], it’s very strong.”

Max Verstappen has only been beaten twice in the RB19, on both occasions he finished second behind team-mate Sergio Perez

Drawing similarities to the past

Mercedes’ dominance at the commencement of the turbo hybrid era instantly springs to mind as an example of when a team had utter supremacy over the rest of the F1 grid.

Horner, though, was keen to point to the case of McLaren-Honda in 1988, who, with the iconic McLaren MP4/4, seemed destined to win every race of the season. One race befell them that year, the Italian Grand Prix.

Whilst Red Bull stopped history from directly repeating itself in Monza, Horner said he believes they will face a similar scenario in 2023 despite their obvious performance advantage with the RB-19.

“Look, we're at fourteen wins out of fourteen races, that's good. Leaving Europe without having been beaten is huge. We will do everything to keep this momentum but I can't promise you anything.

“McLaren didn't make it in 1988 and at the time there were fewer races.”