Horner sees difference in battle with McLaren: 'They have this advantage'
Red Bull Contentpool
F1 News
Christian Horner has already competed against several teams for championships in his long Formula 1 career. In 2024, McLaren won the constructors' title and Horner made a comparison between competing against McLaren versus against Mercedes.
Christian Horner has been team boss at Red Bull Racing since 2005. That makes 20 years since this year. He is the longest-serving team boss in the king class. Toto Wolff is next in this list with 12 years. Horner and Wolff are the only team bosses who have not been replaced since 2022.
Horner's position was briefly uncertain at the start of 2024, though. After all, there was alleged cross-border behaviour. After investigation, the Red Bull Racing team boss was cleared of this and allowed to remain in his position.
In the long time Horner and Wolff spent together in the pinnacle of motorsport, they've only ever truly fought for titles on one ocassion, in 2021, when the tension between both teams reached an all-time high..
In 2024, however, Red Bull's battle was not with Mercedes, but with McLaren with the Woking based team eventually winning the constructors' title with a 14 points margin to Ferrari and a 77 points gap to Red Bull Racing in third place.
'McLaren have had two cars at the front'
After the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Horner was asked to compare his 2024 battle with McLaren to his 2021 battle with Mercedes, but the Briton chose to explain the reason behind McLaren's success last year. "They've had two drivers that have been scoring. They've scored six victories to our nine. But they've had on so many occasions, even for this race, they've been starting with two cars on the front row. Of course that has an enormous benefit in any constructor situation. You can't underestimate that," Horner told GPblog and others.
Said reason, was also behind Red Bull's Constructors' defeat as well. Where McLaren had two drivers fighting at the top, the Austrian team only had one in Max Verstappen. Sergio Perez had mediocre performances throughout the last three quarters of the season, which not also led to Red Bull finishing P3 in the standings but also to the Mexican being ousted from the teams ranks.
This article was written in collaboration with Sandy van Wijngaarden.
Want more Formula 1? Then follow GPblog on our various social media channels too!