Red Bull and two-time world champion Max Verstappen have taken the reins of dominance from Mercedes and their driver, Lewis Hamilton. The new regulations were a big step up for the Red Bull team, and they have dominated the 2022 season. Now their dominance has reached another level this year, with star driver Max Verstappen winning 11 out of 13 races this season.
Since the controversial win in Abu Dhabi in 2021, Mercedes has taken a big hit. They still haven’t been able to completely recover from it. They are trying to get back at Red Bull and fight for the top again. Recently, team principal Toto Wolf was caught saying that they are seeing a lot of opportunities while focusing on working on the 2024 car.
Horner dismissed future Red Bull supremacy
Being in the Red Bull dominance era now, reporters asked team principal Christian Horner to shed light on Red Bull’s future and the possibility of them continuing the performance into the coming seasons.
In a recent interview with Skysports, Christian Horner opened up about the team’s future and said that they have to focus on the car more as the FIA has cut their tunnel time as they are at the top of the sport right now. He also went on to say that teams on the grid have started catching up too; he took McLaren as an example.
This is what Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said, “With a handicap that we have, we have to really swing our focus over to next year because we have a significant deficit in wind tunnel time compared to our competitors and we have to be very selective in how we use them,”
“So, of course, we have to be very, very selective in the running that we’re doing and that’s where the engineering team back in Milton Keynes are doing an incredible job, the way that they’re effectively and efficiently developing the car.”
RB chief’s Mercedes statement raises question on Red Bull monopoly
Ex-F1 champions Mercedes have lost their charm and performance largely compared to their dominant years. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolf has come out publicly to say that they are very focused on developing their 2024 car. He stated that they have crossed the no-side pod design completely. He accepts that they are in need of drastic changes for the next season.
Toto Wolf also added that they are largely focusing on the 2024 car, but they aren’t going to give up on this year anytime soon. He referenced McLaren and said that if they can take such a big leap this season, so can they. He said, “I wouldn’t want to give up any season,” he said in Hungary. “You can see how McLaren has leapfrogged everybody else with an update that didn’t expect to come in that powerful. Whatever it was, they gained a second probably and leapfrogged Aston Martin, Ferrari who have been really strong contenders at the beginning of the season and now they’re nowhere.”
“We’ve just need to continue working and chipping away at our understanding and unlocking the potential in the car as Aston Martin did over the winter or McLaren during the season. We won’t give up.”