Max Verstappen and Christian Horner knew and expected that a clean sweep of winning all F1 races wasn’t possible, but they are proud of current run.
It was always going to be an uphill task to win all the races in a season which consists of 22 events and despite claims from rivals that Red Bull will do, even though there was small desire to do it, the Milton Keynes-based outfit were realistic of their chances.
The chance and streak eventually came to an end in last weekend’s F1 Singapore GP. Their run of wins ended at record-setting 15 races taking in 2022 Abu Dhabi GP. They now can beat/create new record of most wins in a year which is 19 set by Mercedes.
They have seven races left and they will have to win six of them to create a new record. But for now, both Verstappen and Horner are fine with the end of the current streak as they never expected to come this far when they started out the F1 2023 season.
“I knew that this day would come, so for me it is absolutely fine,” said Verstappen. “Everything needs to be perfect. Everyone is always saying, ‘ah look how dominant they are and look how easy it is’, but you know it is never easy.
“And a lot of details that we need to get right to do so and in Singapore, clearly we didn’t get a few things right and then you are on the backfoot,” summed up Verstappen, who needs just four more wins to break his own record of most wins in a year which sits at 15. And he has seven attempts to win four races and better his own record.
Horner, meanwhile, concurred with Verstappen where they never expected to win all the rounds. “I mean to win 15 in a row is insanity when you consider the variance of circuits that we’ve come across, the conditions, etc,” he said. “It is the first time since 2018 that we weren’t in Q3, so it’s been a hell of a run for the team that we always knew was going to come to a stop at some point.
“And it’s been an incredible year, one that we’re all very proud of. We never expected to win all the races this year. I mean, there’s still seven races to go! I mean, Jesus Christ, you guys have been asking me since pretty much Jeddah, and to have got through 15 races, is beyond our wildest imaginations.
“For Max to have won 10 in a row is insanity. Last time a driver did that was Sebastian in one of our cars. Again, so incredibly proud to have the first the second most winning-est drivers in Formula One, whilst statistics apparently don’t matter. They are ones that as a team we are incredibly proud of.
“And to have got this far, to have broken the record since 1988, shows just how hard it is to achieve the kind of supremacy that we’ve achieved this year. And that’s testimony to everybody doing and playing their part,” summed up Horner.
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