Horner: ‘Not one ounce of me’ wants F1 2021 repeat

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner has admitted that “not one ounce of me” would want a repeat of the 2021 Formula 1 season.

After lagging behind the dominant Mercedes side throughout the early stages of the V6 turbo-hybrid engine era, a small tweak to the floor regulations for 2021 paved the way for Red Bull to return to title contention.

A dramatic championship battle went down to the final lap of the final round in Abu Dhabi, with Max Verstappen prevailing over Lewis Hamilton to clinch the Drivers’ crown.

But while Mercedes has struggled since the regulations were overhauled last year, Red Bull has aced the latest rules cycle to be on course to retain both titles it won last year.

Horner has credited the entire Red Bull team for the current success it is enjoying, admitting that its recent dominance has left him not wanting close competition again.

When asked if he wished for more of a challenge after Red Bull recorded its 13th consecutive win in Belgium, Horner said: “There’s not one ounce of me, I think I’m still in recovery from 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 these kind of results by accident.

“It’s a golden moment for our team and just absolutely take your hat off to everyone behind the scenes who is working as hard as they are to achieve this kind of performance.”

Having recorded 13 consecutive victories since the final round of last year to break McLaren’s previous all-time F1 record from 1988, Red Bull is aiming to become the first side to win every single race in a year.

The Austrian outfit’s crushing advantage at the front of the field is not under any threat of reducing, with Max Verstappen storming from sixth on the grid at Spa-Francorchamps to win by 22s over team-mate Sergio Perez.

Verstappen has registered eight successive wins, leaving him only one shy of matching Sebastian Vettel’s leading tally of nine.

“From my side I just focus on every single race I try to win,” the Dutchman stated. “We just try to keep it going honestly and just enjoying the moment.

“But I think it’s an incredible achievement from the whole team. Yes, we have the dominant car, but it’s also very easy to make mistakes and then not win one race and then the streak is gone.

“Even in the dominant years of Mercedes they couldn’t make it happen and I think it was probably even more dominant than what we had at the moment or what McLaren had because there were a lot more retirements going on because of reliability stuff.

“So I’m really proud to be part of the team and to achieve something like this.”