Christian Horner thinks Red Bull are in for a much "tougher" season after dominating in 2022.
Whilst rivals failed to get to grips with the new regulations in F1's fresh era, Max Verstappen cruised to the drivers' title, finishing a mammoth 146 points clear of Ferrari man Charles Leclerc. Verstappen and Sergio Perez also secured a first Constructors' title for the team in nine years.
But the Scuderia seemingly had the pace to match Red Bull for much of the season, but were plagued by strategic errors which ultimately led to the departure of Team Principal Mattia Binotto. After a torrid start, Mercedes also improved as the year went on, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton notching a one-two finish in the penultimate race in Brazil.
Both Hamilton and Russell are expected to compete harder this time around, with the Silver Arrows having seemingly addressed their proposing issues which affected performance last year. And Horner, 49, knows holding them off will be anything but a walk in the park.
“Last year was an extraordinary year – nobody could have predicted 17 race wins out of 22, two out of three Sprint victories," he said, following the Red Bull New York livery launch on Friday. "It was the most successful year in our history.
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"This year it’s going to be a lot tougher and a lot tighter. The regulations are relatively stable and I think the group will converge. We’ve got some very capable rivals, so I fully expect it to be a lot more competitive and all we can do is focus on getting the best out of our own package. Last year was a phenomenal year and it will be difficult to repeat those statistics.”
Horner thinks Toto Wolff's Mercedes team will bounce back in 2023 (Formula 1 via Getty Images)Red Bull's preparations could also be hampered by the FIA sanctions imposed on them, after they were found to have breached the budget cap in 2021. Despite initially denying the allegation, and Horner and co later accepted the verdict and a £6 million fine, plus a 10% reduction in wind tunnel time.
Horner recently lamented the effect of the sanction: "We're probably 25% almost of the way through that penalty and, of course, it has an effect. It's limiting significantly, the amount of runs that we can do in our wind tunnel over each quarter," he told RACER. "And I think that the team, they're having to adapt to that. And it just means you have to be a bit more focused, and more disciplined in what we put through the testing process within the tunnel or within our simulation tools.
"So it's another challenge and it's a handicap for sure, coming into this year, but we've got very capable people that are looking to obviously extract the best that we possibly can and apply ourselves in the most efficient and effective way."
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