F1 News: Christian Horner Doubles Down On Lewis Hamilton's Fear - “Next Year’s Car Is An Evolution"

Lewis Hamilton was concerned that Red Bull hadn't updated their RB19 since August and that meant they were solely focusing on their 2024 car.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner doubled down on Lewis Hamilton's biggest fear after confirming that the RB19 allowed the team to apply resources and time for the development of the evolutionary RB20, hinting that Red Bull's car next season could be much faster than 2023. 

Max Verstappen's Abu Dhabi GP run was nothing short of fabulous after he pulled away from rival Charles Leclerc toward the end of Lap 1. The Dutchman went on to win the race at Yas Marina with a staggering 17.9-second lead from Leclerc in P2. 

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The win in Abu Dhabi totalled Verstappen's wins of 2023 to 19 out of the 22 Grands Prix. Consequently, Hamilton expressed a "concern" for Mercedes which secured P2 in the Constructors' Championship but went through a winless season.

Raising doubts for next year after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Hamilton told Sky F1: 

"At this moment, I don't really know [about next year]. For Red Bull to win by 17 seconds and they haven't developed their car since August is definitely a concern.

"We have learned a lot about the car and it's just down to the team now. They know what they need to do. Whether or not we will get there, we will see.”

Horner confirmed Hamilton's fears, stating that they were indeed able to start work on the 2024 challenger a lot earlier. He told Motorsport Magazine:

“Thankfully, we had a good base to start because if we’d have been consumed with the very limited amount of wind tunnel we had in terms of developing RB19, it would really compromise us very badly on to RB20.

“But because we had a great starting block with ’19 enabled us to apply the limited amount of resource that we had available to RB20 reasonably early for us, while spinning both plates. That’s why development has been very frugal on this car really since the middle of the year.

“Next year’s car is an evolution. Obviously you start to get into diminishing returns. But you know, the team have done an outstanding job this year. It’s the most successful car ever in F1’s history. And they can all be very, very proud of that.”