Red Bull Chief Reveals 'Massive Shift' After F1 CEO Asked Him To ‘Slow Down’

Saajan Jogia | Jan 1, 2025

Jun 8, 2024; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Red Bull Racing CEO and team principal Christian Horner in the pit lane at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images / Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner opened up on the "massive shift" the team experienced after the first ten races of the 2024 season, when three rival teams, namely McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari, had suddenly become competitive. This resurgence coincided with Red Bull's struggles with the RB20 F1 car that had just begun. Interestingly, Horner said that this synced with the Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali's statements to him, urging him to stop winning races by a margin of 20 seconds as the sport's popularity suffered in 2023 due to Red Bull's dominance.

Red Bull won 21 out of the 22 Grands Prix in 2023 and carried its dominant streak into 2024 with Max Verstappen winning 7 races in the first 10 Grands Prix. However, things changed soon after, as the period saw the grid converging intensely, while Red Bull began to experience balance problems with its RB20. The problem grew in severity to the point where Verstappen struggled to finish on the podium. Eventually, while he managed to win the 2024 championship in Las Vegas, the car problems caused Red Bull to lose the top two positions in the Constructors' Championship to McLaren and Ferrari.

The moment of the dramatic shift in competition has been noted by Horner, who also praised Verstappen for the way he reacted to the difficult situation and led the team in the right direction through his input. Speaking to RacingNews365, Horner said:

"I think it almost felt like something had changed, because suddenly we had not just one team, but three teams become very competitive and we seemed to lose competitiveness from winning races at a canter in the first four or five races.

"At that point, Stefano [Domencali] was telling me to slow down and stop winning races and sprints by 20s seconds - it was a massive shift.

"Suddenly our tools didn't correlate with what we were seeing on track, and then that is where Max played a crucial role, because when your tools aren't behaving, the biggest sensor and most feedback you get is from the driver.

"This year, he really rolled up his sleeves, worked tirelessly with the engineering staff to give the direction of: 'Right, this is where we need to focus, this is where the problems are that I am experiencing and this is what we need to address."

When asked what exactly changed after the Miami Grand Prix, the race that marked McLaren's resurgence, Horner gave a brief answer saying:

"That is still to be explained, but it felt like something had changed."

The team boss then explained the ups and downs Red Bull experienced through the season with various upgrade packages, before Verstappen ended the season strongly. He added:

"We started the season with a very competitive car and then around Miami, McLaren suddenly made a step, and the upgrades we brought to Imola made the car a lot more peakier.

"Max won some big races at Imola, in Barcelona and in Montreal but we didn't have the fastest car and he couldn't make any mistakes and we had to be absolutely on it, operationally, and that was crucial.

"Through the summer months, at Silverstone, we had a good race strategically, we nearly won it through the strategy, were unlucky not to win in Austria and then on the days we couldn't win, bagging points in [Max's] home race, in Singapore, Monza and Azerbaijan.

"It was important to capitalise on every single point that we could get and then managing to get a bit of performance back on the car for the end of the year, which Max was then able to exploit."