The curse of sport is that unless you are number one, you are condemned to live under a cloud of failure. For no matter how many races you win, poles you take or points you score, there can only be one champion. The rest all fall short.
Red Bull know this only too well. After being deposed from F1’s Mount Olympus with the onset of the V6 turbo hybrids, their journey back to the top was as frustrating as it was humbling. But that decade of discontent reached its end over the past two seasons, and Red Bull head into a new year as undisputedly and unequivocally the best team in their sport.
Emerging bruised, bloodied but victorious from their brutal year-long battle against Mercedes in 2021, Red Bull knew they were vulnerable going into Max Verstappen’s first year sporting the coveted number one on his car. But when Mercedes faltered, Ferrari faced up to Red Bull in their place. However, Ferrari’s implosion as the season progressed allowed Verstappen to cruise to a second title, breaking records and rivals’ hearts along the way, while Red Bull added the constructors’ crown.
Now, after years spent smouldering in frustration watching Mercedes ease to every title while they could do little but watch on, Red Bull feel they are firmly back where they belong. And team principal Christian Horner has every reason to believe they are all the better for those years in the doldrums.
“This is the strongest that Red Bull has ever been,” Horner boldly declared to media including RaceFans at the end of last season.
“I think that the strength and depth that we have – technically, operationally, throughout the business – everybody’s gone that extra yard, which you need to do to achieve the kind of results that we have against opposition that is world class. And nobody ever lost sight of the target, after eight years in the wilderness, effectively, of keeping that momentum going, keeping that focus and determination. And when we got an opportunity, we’ve grabbed it with both hands.”
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Leading the charge, as ever, is the team’s double world champion: Max Verstappen. His paradigm-shifting debut as a 17-year-old prodigy led to the FIA changing its own rules to prevent anyone copying him, has fulfilled all the incredible potential he showed from the moment he left a Formula 1 garage for the first time. What was once a raw-but-rash prospect, just as capable of…
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