Lewis Hamilton feels defeated after Mercedes endured a miserable weekend at the Brazilian GP.
Christian Horner claims Red Bull’s 2024 title defense will not be as simple as expected after Lewis Hamilton suggested it was unlikely Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari would catch them before the new regulations come into effect force in 2026.
Red Bull has been completely dominant in 2023, greatly helped by the performance of Max Verstappen, who is in the strongest form of his career.
This year will go down as one of the most legendary individual campaigns in F1 history.
Only one of the 20 Grands Prix this season has been won by a driver not wearing a Red Bull kit, with Carlos Sainz taking a deserved victory in Singapore.
Verstappen took a record 17 of these wins. Meanwhile, Hamilton is still waiting to end his winless streak since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion took pole position after a sensational lap in Hungary, but failed to finish so cannot be converted into a total of 25 points.
Mercedes had their weakest race of the season at Interlagos last time out, prompting a deflated Hamilton to declare: “I think Red Bull is very far away.
I think they will probably be very clear in the next few years. However, regarding the first numbers regarding the 2024 Red Bull car, Horner replied: “It’s always difficult to read too much into these things.
I think a lot of world championships are won in the wind tunnel at this time of year.
“I think we have a great car, we have a good facility.
We have to keep growing it, but of course profits will decrease because you’re hitting the top of the curve.
“And you can see it’s going to be an accordion. It will become closer and it will expand us further, that’s for sure. But the whole team is very, very motivated.
You see, no one has been left behind since we won the championship. Everyone is still doing their best. “In Horner’s assessment, Hamilton still has some hope.
Red Bull team principal recalls their difficulties at last season’s Brazilian GP and explains how they played their part catalytic in helping the team move forward, despite winning both world championships in 2022.
“You have to continue to improve in every area,” Horner continued. “I think coming out of this race [in Brazil] last year hurt us, in the sense that our performance wasn’t as good as we would have liked. We felt we didn’t have the right settings. So we took the lessons from last year and applied them well and focused our car on racing.”