Horner admits anticipating 'challenging' times ahead at Red Bull

Christian Horner is aware that ‘challenging’ times lie ahead for his Red Bull team following their domination of the opening round of the Formula 1 season in Bahrain.

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez combined to secure an emphatic 1-2 in the Sakhir desert, going almost completely unchallenged throughout the race.

Adrian Newey’s aggressive winter developments have helped them to retain a significant advantage over their rivals – one that will take a while to close down. Ferrari are the closest to challenging them in the short-term, but they have to find more race pace if they are to sustain any attack.

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Horner: This season will be a lot more challenging

Speaking about the team’s progress and prospective hopes he shared a reserved view on what lies ahead for them.

“Again, I’ve been in this business too long to draw too many conclusions from a single race,” he said. “It’s a fantastic start, we’ll enjoy this moment, maximum points score.

“But it’s a long season, many different venues, different challenges, different conditions. And what we saw in the testing is that things are closer.

“Now we have a sample of one race. I have the feeling the field is going to concertina this year. So, I don’t think you can take anything for granted out of this one race on a specific surface, specific conditions.

“And I have a feeling that this season will be a lot more challenging on-track than last season. But it’s the best possible start, and our minds are already thinking about five days’ time in Jeddah.”

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix should see the field close in on Red Bull, with the high degradation surface of Bahrain no longer set to plague everyone.

It likely won’t be enough to prevent Max Verstappen from winning his ninth race in a row, but it could be enough to disrupt his charge towards pole position.

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