Christian Horner is expecting a “massively close” battle to unfold at the front of the field in 2025, with the Red Bull boss admitting that consistency will be crucial as his team look to fight back following their loss of the constructors’ championship.
While Max Verstappen successfully defended the drivers’ title to become world champion for a fourth consecutive year, Red Bull were beaten to the teams’ crown by McLaren, while Ferrari also ended the season ahead of them in second place.
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Reflecting on McLaren’s victory following the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – a race in which Verstappen was involved in a collision with Oscar Piastri on the first lap before Lando Norris went on to win – Horner acknowledged that the Woking outfit had earned their triumph.
“Congratulations to McLaren, to all the men and women there,” said Horner. “We know how hard it is to win a constructors’ World Championship and the dedication and effort that has to go into that, so to Zak [Brown] and Andrea [Stella] and their shareholders, but most of all the men and women at McLaren, congratulations.
“They’ve been outstanding this year, they’ve had two drivers that have performed extremely well and were deserving victors in the end. I’m sure that we raised pulses and blood pressure at the start of the race with the moment with Oscar [when Verstappen collided with the Australian] but, yeah, they deserved that constructors’ championship this year, despite the fact that we won more races, more Sprint races.
