Red Bull’s title-winning boss options in a particular version of the Sky Sports F1 podcast to mirror on his staff’s record-breaking 2023 marketing campaign; Listen in full as Christian Horner talks drivers, rivals, the expansion of F1, and the story behind THAT photograph with Toto Wolff

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has defined why being team-mate to world champion Max Verstappen represents such a “tough gig”.

The title-winning Red Bull staff principal, who has overseen essentially the most dominant championship win in F1’s historical past, featured on a particular version of the Sky Sports F1 podcast wherein he mentioned the staff’s file season, drivers Verstappen and Sergio Perez, his relationship with Mercedes rival Toto Wolff, and far more.

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On triple champion Verstappen, Horner mentioned it was “impossible to fault the season he’s had” and that it was the Dutchman’s relentless on monitor that made it such a problem for present team-mate Sergio Perez, and others earlier than him, to go up in opposition to.

“We always field the most competitive cars that we can, there’s never a difference between the two cars,” mentioned Horner.

“We had an period with Sebastian [Vettel] the place he was extremely dominant, and it was troublesome to be his team-mate.

“Now with Max, exactly the same thing.

“He is a machine. He is arguably, definitely the very best driver presently in Formula 1, as a three-time world champion, and to be his team-mate is extremely robust. If you aren’t psychologically robust you will not deal with being his team-mate. It’s so simple as that.

“He’s just relentless in his pace, in the way that he operates, and I think that’s been one of the positives with Checo [Perez] that he’s had the strength of character to be able to deal with that. We have seen it sort of break others in the past. It’s a tough gig to be his team-mate.”

Asked whether or not, as Verstappen will get much more skilled, Red Bull would ever take into account pairing him with a younger junior driver, Horner replied: “The expectations on the Red Bull drivers are so high it would be very unfair to put a junior straight in to Red Bull Racing.

“That’s the luxurious of getting AlphaTauri. It has offered Max, it has offered Seb, Daniel Ricciardo, so lots of our drivers through the years have come out of AlphaTauri vehicles.”

The 33-year-old Perez will start his fourth season alongside the Dutchman in 2024 in what stands as the final year of his current contract.

Asked what New Year’s resolutions would be for each of his drivers, Horner said of Perez’s: “His largest decision could be to kind his qualifying out.

“That’s been his Achilles’ heel at certain points this year and, if he can do that, then his race pace is always strong, he races very well.

“We want him qualifying nearer the entrance, nearer to Max and placing extra stress on. We cannot afford for him to go lacking at sure factors of the championship and [not] have that consistency.

“He finished second this year, third last year, and fourth the year before so he’s on the right trajectory.”

Horner mentioned in a separate interview with Sky Sports News this week that “everything is open” relating to their driver choices subsequent to Verstappen in 2025, with inside and exterior candidates within the operating.

In addition to incumbent Perez, Daniel Ricciardo, who rejoined the Red Bull fold this yr and has returned to race at sister squad AlphaTauri, is within the operating.

“When he came to us you could see he was pretty much done with Formula 1 and he wasn’t enjoying it,” mentioned Horner on Ricciardo, who initially rejoined in a third-driver function after being dropped by McLaren on the finish of 2022.

“But slowly that smile came back, that energy came back, and certainly that test he did in Silverstone for us mid-season was truly, truly impressive, and the work behind the scenes on the simulator, so he deserved the chance in the AlphaTauri.

“He was unfortunate then to interrupt his hand at Zandvoort. But I assumed he drove very properly this yr and, most significantly, he put some engineering route of the staff with the expertise he had. I believe that actually benefitted the AlphaTauri staff.”

Horner on Red Bull’s record-breaking car – and what’s next in 2024

“It’s a piece of history now,” says Horner on the staff’s all-conquering 2023 automobile, which gained all-but one of many season’s 22 races.

“What it has achieved is quite outstanding and, of course, so much of it was carry-over from RB18. Part of the chassis was carried over, a lot of the suspension was carried over, the gearbox was exactly the same.

“So most likely 60 per cent of the automobile really raced final yr as properly. The quantity of races that a few of these elements have gained is greater than 30 races.

“It’s incredible to think what we have achieved as a team so this car to have broken all the records, from the McLaren 1988 season to winning 95.5 per cent of the races this year, has just been phenomenal, and Max has been on a different level as well this year.”

So what is going to hold Red Bull motivated to maintain profitable in 2024?

“Everybody is so motivated by success and of course Singapore still hurt this year that we lost the race and that’s a big reminder, it’s a humbling reminder, that it’s not that easy and we’ve got some massive competitors that want to beat us and want to see us fail,” added Horner.

“It’s that motivation that charges us and drives us and that winning feeling becomes addictive and nobody wants to lose that winning feeling.”

24 races in 2024! Watch each spherical of subsequent season stay on Sky Sports F1, beginning with the Bahrain Grand Prix from February 29-March 2. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW