The domination of Mercedes seemed endless to Christian Horner
Mercedes enjoyed a period of 7 years of dominance. It took until 2021 to see Red Bull defeat the silver arrows.
Since the new regulations in 2022, Red Bull has once again become the team to beat. The Austrian team had already been in this position between 2010 and 2013 with the 4 world titles won by Sebastian Vettel.
Since 2013, only one team has won the championships, Mercedes. The Silver Arrows have won 7 consecutive titles (6 by Lewis Hamilton in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, and 1 title by Nico Rosberg in 2016).
A domination that lasted an eternity for Christian Horner.
« Seven long years, that’s a long time. We got less for our crimes! We had to wait to regain a competitive position. We had to watch many Mercedes victories. But we never lost sight of our goal, we always win races every year on circuits where we could excel,” explained Christian Horner, the director of the Red Bull team, in the podcast “Unlapped” by ESPN.
It took until the 2021 season to see Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton defeated. It was Dutchman Max Verstappen who defeated the seven-time world champion.
« We never lost sight of that objective, it was simply a matter of putting the missing pieces in place. Then, once we had a competitive engine, we were able to challenge Mercedes,” continued the man in charge of the Milton Keynes-based team.
Since Max Verstappen’s victory in 2021 and the new regulations, the Austrian firm has become the team to beat. Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen have [broken the record for consecutive victories](/f1/actualite/31160-red-bull-bat-record-victoires-consecutives-f1-vieux-34-ans.html “Red Bull beats McLaren’s record”). The team is currently undefeated this season.
« We could never have imagined in our wildest dreams that we would head into the summer break undefeated in both Grand Prix and Sprint races,” the 49-year-old man explained. « During the pre-season testing in February, we knew we had a good car, but we expected Ferrari to build on last year’s performance and we expected Mercedes to be strong as well,” concluded the Red Bull British driver.
