Spa [Belgium], August 2 : Christian Horner has taken a moment to look back on what Red Bull has achieved over the opening half of the 2023 season as the team head into the summer break with an unbeaten record.
Max Verstappen’s victory at the Belgian Grand Prix last time out was his eighth in a row and 10th for the campaign, while Red Bull (adding in Sergio Perez’s two wins earlier this year) is on a run of 13 successive triumphs – stretching back to the 2022 finale in Abu Dhabi.
According to Formula 1 website Christian Horner while praising Max Verstappen said, “I’m surprised it took him so long, to be honest. But honestly, all jokes aside, I thought he drove an incredible race. His pace in the first stint, passing the cars that he did, he did a great job to get up to P2, and then after the first stop his race really came alive on the medium tyre where he showed incredible speed."
He added, “Checo [Perez] didn’t defend too hard because of the speed difference between them and thereafter it was about managing the rest of the race. It’s phenomenal to go into the summer break unbeaten, in both Grands Prix and Sprints. I think it’s beyond everybody’s wildest imagination to be sitting in this position now.”
Horner was then asked, with Red Bull forging a new era of success, whether there is a “small part” of him that wished rivals were offering up more of a challenge.
“There’s not one ounce of me,” he said. “I think I’m still in recovery from [the championship battle with Mercedes in] 2021."
“Look, results like today, it’s the combination of teamwork, it’s about every member of the team, every department in the factory doing their job – you don’t achieve this kind of results by accident."
“It’s a golden moment for our team and [you] just absolutely take your hat off to everyone behind the scenes who are working as hard as they are to achieve this kind of performance.”
With 12 races down, Verstappen leads Perez by 125 points in the drivers’ standings, while Red Bull leads nearest rivals Mercedes by 256 points in the constructors’.
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