Room for improvement for Red Bull? Rivals hope not

LONDON : Red Bull principal Christian Horner joked after Formula One's season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that, with his team winning 21 of 22 races in 2023, there was room for improvement next year.

If the quip raised only a hollow laugh after the most dominant season ever, with triple world champion Max Verstappen setting a string of records including 10 wins in a row and 19 in total, it was because it contained an underlying truth.

Red Bull will hope to defend their titles in 2024, when there will be a record 24 races, with an even better car.

"This car is going to go down in the history books as a very, very special car," Horner said of the RB19. "To have won 21 races out of the 22, just missing out on Singapore, it leaves room for improvement.

"You're always looking to find marginal gains," he continued.

"It's never enough. We know our opponents, this will have motivated them more than ever to come back at us hard and nothing stands still in this sport. Everything moves so quickly.

"You could see as we weren't developing, the opposition coming closer and closer. We're going to hopefully take all of these lessons out of this car and apply it into our 20th car, RB20, next year and try and defend these two titles."

The big question on everyone's lips is how much their rivals can raise their game, as they surely will.

The final gulf between Red Bull and closest rival Mercedes was staggering - more points than the once-dominant second-placed team, who failed to win a race for the first time since 2011, managed in total.

Verstappen alone, with a record 575 points, scored more than Mercedes' 409.

Sergio Perez was eclipsed by his team mate, with plenty of speculation about his Red Bull future earlier in the year, yet still finished