Horner predicts biggest rival for Verstappen: 'He drove fantastic'

Because Red Bull were so ahead of the other F1 teams, the Austrian team were able to largely stop work on the RB19 as early as the summer and focus on the 2024 car, the RB20. "All areas have been revisited in the car. We can't afford to have any complacency," Horner is quoted by Speedcafe.com.

Horner: 'More F1 cars will look like the RB19'

The team boss says the car is an evolution and that Red Bull are anything but 'reinventing the wheel'. Because what Red Bull have been doing in recent years works. For exactly that reason, Horner expects other teams to come closer this year. "I'm expecting the cars to look more familiar to a (RB)19 because it's inevitable that they will," continued the 50-year-old Briton.

Horner does not see a dominant performance in 2024 as a realistic scenario. "We will not repeat the year. It will go down as a unicorn year for us, that's for sure," he adds. Which F1 team does Horner expect the most from in 2024? McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes all made strides during 2023, but Aston Martin should not be forgotten either.

"Mercedes has great strength in depth. Obviously, they've had a difficult period, but they've great drivers, and they will get it together, one would assume, at some point; McLaren had a great back end of the year, and Ferrari show flashes of real potential," Horner said.

Praising Horner: "He drove fantastic"

That, according to the Red Bull team boss, makes it difficult to determine who can make things most difficult for Red Bull. Moreover, he does not discount Aston Martin either, especially because of Fernando Alonso's immense performance in the first half of the season. "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 said about Lawrence Stroll's team.

"But they've got big facilities, big resources, and they've recruited a lot of talent into that team, and Fernando was brilliant (last year). He drove fantastically well. For a 42-year-old guy, I thought he was outstanding," Horner concluded.