‘This car will go down in the history books’ – Horner reflects on ‘phenomenal’ Red Bull season

This season, the RB19 has dominated everything in its path, setting a number of records under the now three-time world champion Max Verstappen’s control. This year, the Red Bull car has won 21 of the 22 races, an incredible accomplishment that defies comparison to previous eras of supremacy. His teammate has also contributed two wins to the early season.

With the exception of Singapore being the only weekend where Red Bull didn’t occupy the first step of the rostrum, Verstappen has already won 19 races this season. They also managed to win five of the six Sprints between them too, Oscar Piastri in Qatar the only driver able to get the better of the RB19 in the shorter format.

According to Horner, “this car is going to go down in the history books as a very, very special car.” “To have prevailed in 21 of the 22 races… In Singapore, there’s always opportunity for improvement—just missing out. But what a year it has been.

Above all, I believe that the men and women working behind the scenes in the plant and throughout the entire company—as well as the support staff—have been instrumental in making this happen. They have contributed to the creation, delivery, and operation of this vehicle.

We’ve played at 22 different locations, winning at 21 of them. Rain, wind, various situations, and strategies have all been present. It’s just been the most phenomenal year and everybody can take a huge amount of pride in what they’ve achieved.”

This year’s remarkable performance for the team wasn’t limited to the RB19’s evident speed; they also won the titles for most victories in a season, most wins by a single driver, most wins by a driver from pole position, most points, and their first-ever 1-2 finish in the drivers’ championship.

Together with a dominant DRS assembly, a potent Power Unit that delivered results on the straights, and numerous early-season modifications that kept them even farther ahead of the competition, the RB19 was also highly dependable.

Horner said, “I think we went through some difficult years, but we never lost sight of what our target was. It’s all about winning, it’s all about achieving a goal.” In those difficult years we were always picking up wins here and there and we never lost that fighting spirit.

We continue to function mostly as a traditional race team. We challenge ourselves and the boundaries, and I don’t think anyone wants to back down. We were able to take advantage of the fact that Honda had returned with a competitive engine, and I must commend them for their contribution as well as the reliability we have observed.

In terms of domination, even Mercedes’ 2016 season pales in comparison; the Silver Arrows were defeated only two of the 21 Grands Prix that year. Even the most jaded paddock veterans have been taken aback by what Red Bull has accomplished, but they are not resting on their laurels.

“We are always looking to marginal gains, as it’s never enough,” Horner added. “We know our opponents; this will have motivated them to come back at us hard. Nothing stands still in this sport, everything moves so quickly and you can see as we weren’t developing the opposition coming closer and closer.

“So, we hopefully take all of these lessons out of this car and apply it to RB20, our 20th car next year and try and defend these two titles.”