Christian Horner features on F1 Beyond The Grid podcast episode this week where he talks about current year and how 2021 was, Max Verstappen, Colton Herta and more.
The F1 Beyond The Podcast guest this week is Red Bull boss Horner. It begins with a brief discussion about the previous podcast he undertook in 2018 and touched on Daniel Ricciardo, who made a switch to Renault leaving their team.
He adds about the Australian’s confidence and that he hopes Ricciardo will be on the grid in 2023 after the bad period with McLaren. Switching to the current times, Horner reckons Red Bull are operating at their highest level ever where Max Verstappen has upped the ante and Sergio Perez too has blossomed.
Regarding the new regulations, he says the team worked incredibly over the winter to create the new car for 2022, which he terms as their best car that they have created straight on when the FIA has brought new regulations in F1.
He spoke about how the team came have come back after Ferrari started so well in 2022 and says that despite Red Bull being at the front now, Ferrari have still had an excellent season and was also surprised at Mercedes lack of pace in the early part of the season.
He reckons they are possibly entering a new Red Bull era, simply because they have never given up as he speaks highly about the team and their strength in depth. Further on, he speaks about the radical regulation changes and that the new rules have improved the racing massively, particularly overtaking.
Regarding 2021, Horner reckons the duel between Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen was fantastic but reckons it took him an age to recover from the strain of the season. He thinks they did a slightly better job than Mercedes to just shade it in reality and adds that so much that happened off track added to the strain.
He reveals that he reached out to Michael Masi several times post-race and felt he was unfairly treated after Abu Dhabi. He then speaks about the two new race directors who are still learning the job. Horner felt in reality that it was not correct that he and Toto Wolff could speak to Masi on the radio and says that a team principal should not be able to lobby the race director, speaking regarding the Silverstone incident.
He spoke further about the Abu Dhabi incident and reckons it was the most competitive season ever.. He says the relationship in 2021 between him and Wolff was very intense and it wasn’t just for the cameras. Moving on to Verstappen, Horner thinks he is a more polished driver in 2022 after looking back at the incidents between him and Hamilton.
Horner reckons Verstappen got in Hamilton’s head more than vice versa and he felt Hamilton was rattled by Verstappen’s overtaking. He then speaks about the respect between Hamilton and Verstappen and that the Dutchman was not afraid of Hamilton at all.
He switches to talk about the Charles Leclerc, saying there is mutual respect between them but there was needle between Hamilton and Verstappen. He says if they can win this year, it will be more stressful than their previous titles from the past and last season too. He adds that they are motivated by the lure of success and fear of failure.
The topic then switched to Red Bull Power Trains and says the issues with Renault from the past was behind producing their own engine. He says the budget cap has taken away from the World Championship to a certain extent and the financial regulations are hurting a little and that there are still many ways than can reduce the cost of the cars.
He then spoke about the speculation around Honda coming back in with Red Bull and also about Audi joining F1 and that the talks with Porsche derailed. He added about Red Bull projects outside F1 like Americas Cup, Submarine design, KTM in MotoGP and Chris Hoy.
He advised that it would not be sensible for Red Bull to enter the IndyCar series, which brought the topic about Colton Herta. He feels that it should not be difficult for drivers to transfer from IndyCar to F1 and added about their plans for the American which seemingly is hitting a roadblock. Horner finally ended the podcast speaking about Oscar Piastri and his contractual situation and rates Lando Norris highly too as a driver.
Here’s Christian Horner on F1 Beyond The Grid Podcast: https://audioboom.com/posts/8160868-christian-horner-masterminding-red-bull-s-return-to-the-top