08 December 2023 , 20:33
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Christian Horner admitted his surprise at how little damage was done to Max Verstappen's car as the Dutchman romped to his third Formula 1 crown.
Verstappen was at the top of the standings throughout the 2023 campaign and smashed a series of records as he won the championship in style. But he was at the bottom of another leaderboard - one which proved important in his title hunt.
His dominance helped him to stay out of trouble on track for the most part. So he ended the season as the F1 driver who did least damage to his Red Bull machine as a result of collisions and crashes.
Indeed, one of the few incidents involving Verstappen was when he comically mis-judged driving out of his garage into the Silverstone pit lane and clipped the wall. It was one of a few front wings that he damaged, but that was about the extend of the trouble he got in.
Horner noted how his driver had managed to stay out of trouble. "He just continues to hit new levels. The only damage that he did this year was driving out the garage at Silverstone and clipping the front wing," he said at the FIA Prize Giving ceremony on Friday.
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"It's just phenomenal the heights that he's these hit, the consistency, some of the races, even with adversity coming from the back of the grid after issues in qualifying. There been some stunning performances this year and he just continues to raise the bar. It's just great to see how he works with the team, with his engineering team, and Max is leading that from the front."
It was not just the driver who was dominant as Red Bull also blew their rivals away. They failed to win just one race all year, owing to a rare off-weekend in Singapore, as Horner's team recorded the most dominant season in F1 history.
The lack of competition at the front did spark some complaints from fans who wanted to see a title fight that never materialised. And the fact Red Bull got a head-start on their rivals in terms of their 2024 car development suggests they have a strong chance of being ahead of the game again next year.
But Horner says he is expecting more of a fight from the moment the lights go out in Bahrain next March. He said: "You're always learning in this business, with stable regulations we know that the field will converge, we've seen that at different points during the course of the past year.
"For us, we have to improve, we have to keep evolving and I think all aspects of our RB19 are being looked at to evolve into RB20 and hopefully make it even stronger. I'm sure that's what our competitors will be looking to do."