P1racenews AI automatic summary:
Horner: 2021 shows our F1 dominance is no guarantee for next year
Mercedes dominated the 2020 season, winning 13 out of 17 races, with Lewis Hamilton taking 11 victories and the world championship. Red Bull had a distant second place, but caught up in 2021, leading to a dramatic title showdown. In 2023, Red Bull won all but one race, and Max Verstappen secured his third consecutive world title. However, rival teams are pessimistic about Red Bull’s chances in 2024 as they shifted their development focus to the following year. Red Bull’s team principal, Christian Horner, believes that the competition will catch up, citing Mercedes’ dominance in 2020 and how Red Bull beat them in 2021. The 2024 regulations are more stable compared to the significant changes made between 2020 and 2021. Horner attributes the larger gap in performance to the inconsistent performance of rival teams, such as Ferrari and Mercedes. Despite not claiming a clean sweep of wins, Horner is humbled and sees it as a lesson that things can change quickly in Formula 1. He believes that the 2023 Red Bull car will go down in history as the most successful in Formula 1 for a considerable period of time.
