Red Bull’s warning to rivals with crushing ‘all aspects’ vow for the RB20

Red Bull have delivered a blow to rivals intent on usurping them next season as Christian Horner revealed they’re improving “all aspects” of what is already a dominant car.

This year’s RB19 destroyed the field with Red Bull winning an unprecedented 21 of 22 Grands Prix, 19 of those won by Max Verstappen alone.

The Dutchman strung together a record-breaking 10-win streak from Miami to Italy, wrapped up the title with six Grands Prix to spare, and scored more points than the second-placed Mercedes team.

Can Red Bull’s evolution out-pace rivals’ convergence?

It was a performance that Verstappen and Red Bull’s rivals will be hoping was a one-off that history will go on to say could never be repeated.

Quietly, though, the fears are there will be a repeat performance next season as not only are the rules stagnant, but there was no sign at the final 2023 Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi that the gap had been closed.

Red Bull have also vowed to improve on their RB19 with next year’s RB20.

“I think with stable regulations, we know that the field will converge,” Horner said as he gave the chasing pack a glimmer of hope. “We’ve seen that at different points during the course of the past year.”

And then he continued: “So for us, we have to improve and we have to keep evolving.

“I think all aspects of RB19 are being looked at to evolve into RB20, and hopefully make it even stronger because I’m sure that’s what our competitors will be looking to do.”

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Max Verstappen would be fine with ’10’ race wins title

Receiving the World Champion’s trophy for a third successive season, Verstappen revealed the goal next season is to bag number four, even if he only wins “10 races” on his way to achieving it.

“I don’t think you can talk about percentages or whatever, but there are always things that we can do better,” the 26-year-old said at Friday night’s FIA gala.

“We know that the car has been very, very dominant, but we’ve also seen a few weaknesses in the car where I think we can do better. And that’s what we’re working on for next year.”

He added: “Realistically, of course, it can’t be much better than what we have achieved. But I think it’s not always about trying to win 20 races.

“It’s also about just trying to find improvements within yourself, and within the car. And if that means next year we have improved the car and we can fight for the championship again, but you only win 10 races, that’s also fine.

“It’s just been also that the competition around us has been quite up and down. One weekend it was this team, then the other week it was another team.

“So, I expect next year people are learning a lot with this new regulation as well that it will actually be quite a bit closer.”

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