Red Bull Formula 1 boss Christian Horner believes Mercedes’ “great strength in depth” makes it a threat to the team in 2024 but insists he has his eye on other potential rivals.
Red Bull has thoroughly dominated F1 since the return to ground effect machinery in 2022, prevailing in 39 of the past 44 races to secure successive championship doubles.
Having notched up a record 10 victories in a row earlier in the campaign, Max Verstappen ended last season unbeaten across the last seven grands prix to rack up 19 wins in total.
With Red Bull ceasing development early on its RB19, Lewis Hamilton has predicted that the reigning champion’s sizeable advantage will carry through into the upcoming season.
But Horner, who previously conceded the side is chasing “diminishing returns” on the development front, outlines Red Bull won’t replicate its historic success across the remaining two years of this regulation cycle.
“I’m sure over the next two years we’re going to see much closer racing,” Horner told Speedcafe. “We will not repeat the year.
“It will go down as a unicorn year for us, that’s for sure.”
Despite moving up one spot to second in the standings, Mercedes trailed Red Bull by a seismic 451 points in 2023 and ended an F1 season winless for the first time since 2011.
But with the German outfit pressing ahead with a revamped concept on its W15 car, Horner doesn’t anticipate Mercedes’ struggles under this rules set lasting longer.
“Mercedes has great strength in depth,” he said. “Obviously, they’ve had a difficult period, but they’ve great drivers, and they will get it together, one would assume, at some point.”
However, Horner highlighted McLaren’s “great back end of the year” and Ferrari’s “flashes of real potential” to suggest that Red Bull could have multiple competitors.
“So it’s difficult to identify which of those is likely to be the biggest challenger, but you could take your pick almost,” he added.
Meanwhile, Horner also discussed Aston Martin, who began last season as Red Bull’s closest challenger with Fernando Alonso logging six podiums in the first eight races.
Although the marque encountered “side effects” from upgrades that impacted its competitiveness, Horner highlights that Aston Martin has the potential to rebound.
“They made a huge step at the beginning of the year, but they really tailed off in the second half. I’m sure they’re looking to understand why that happened,” he noted.
“But they’ve got big facilities, big resources, and they’ve recruited a lot of talent into that team, and Fernando was brilliant. He drove fantastically well. For a 42-year-old guy, I thought he was outstanding.”
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