Christian Horner discusses prospect of Red Bull winning 11 races in a row

Jon Wilde
Red Bull's Max Verstappen wins the Italian Grand Prix. Monza, September 2022.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen wins the Italian Grand Prix. Monza, September 2022.

Christian Horner has played down the chances of Red Bull winning all six grands prix still to come on this season’s calendar.

That would make it 11 victories in a row, given Max Verstappen has triumphed at all of the last five races to build what looks an unassailable 116-point lead in the Drivers’ World Championship standings.

The reigning title-holder has already won 11 times in 2022 and needs only two more to equal the record of 13 in a single campaign jointly held by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel.

But such has been the Dutchman’s superiority over his rivals since the Hungarian Grand Prix in particular, where he came home nearly eight seconds clear despite starting from 10th on the grid, that two more wins or even three, to set a new record, might be underestimating his potential.

All six though? That would require a huge amount of doing, says Red Bull team principal Horner – who has also seen Sergio Perez win the Monaco Grand Prix to make it a round dozen of successes for the Milton Keynes operation this season.

“That’s a massive ask and [there is] some huge variance of circuits,” said Horner, quoted by Motorsport.com, asked about the possibility of winning every remaining race this year as the circus rolls on to Singapore for the next round on October 2.

“Singapore compared to Monza, it’s got the most corners on the calendar. It’s bumpy, it’s a street track so it’s a much different challenge.

“We are in a great position in the championship. But we will attack every race and do the best we can, then the points will take care of themselves.

“But we’ve been quick at Spa, Zandvoort, Monza and Budapest even. So on a variance of circuits, the car is performing really well.”

In contrast to past seasons, Red Bull’s strength this year with the RB18 has been straight-line speed, which means the car is particularly well suited to low-downforce circuits with long straights such as Spa and Monza.

Singapore, however, is the complete opposite, which could offer more of a chance to Ferrari and Mercedes, whose driver Lewis Hamilton said after the Italian Grand Prix that Red Bull are “almost unbeatable” and that “it will take some real doing to beat that car – it will take some fortune going our way”.

Of Singapore, Horner predicted: “It should be one of the harder races, I would say.”

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