Red Bull Racing Formula One team principal Christian Horner made a surprising claim about the prospect of his team contending for the 2018 championship.
Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner states that he does not believe the 2018 Formula One season in which Red Bull Racing will be a legitimate contender for the constructors championship.
Horner, 44, also does not believe that either of the team’s two drivers, who are set to be Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen for the third consecutive season, will be legitimate contenders for the drivers championship.
Here is what Horner had to say about the matter, according to Planet F1.
"“Mercedes are the benchmark. They have been talking about reaching 1000 HP over the winter and that is quite frightening if they are achieving those kind of numbers. We expect to have a similar amount of power to where we finished in Abu Dhabi, so we have to do a great job on the chassis. Going for championships is not realistic. Our goal is to close the gap and to be as disruptive as we can. Get amongst it and get as many grand prix wins as possible.”"
Last season, Ricciardo, 28, and Verstappen, 20, combined to win three races for the team. Ricciardo won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, while Verstappen won the Malaysian Grand Prix and the Mexican Grand Prix.
Ricciardo was in 4th place in the drivers standings for much of the season, but he was passed by Scuderia Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in the final race of the season, which was the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Ricciardo ended up finishing in 5th place in the standings. Verstappen, meanwhile, finished where he was in the standings for most of the season, and that was 6th place.
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Red Bull Racing ended up in 3rd place in the constructors standings a fair amount of points behind Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport and Scuderia Ferrari in 1st and 2nd, respectively, but a fair amount of points ahead of 4th place Sahara Force India.
Both Ricciardo and Verstappen were plagued by reliability issues with their Renault engines. These issues caused several of their retirements throughout the season. Ricciardo was forced to retire in six of the season’s 20 races, including three of the last four, and Verstappen was forced to retire in seven of the 20 races, including five in a span of seven races toward the beginning of the season.
Red Bull Racing are expected to improve this season, and they likely will if the issues in their Renault engines are fixed. However, like Horner said, it is safe to assume that Mercedes will be the class of the field for the fifth consecutive season in 2018.
It is also safe to assume that Ferrari won’t skip a beat, so it will definitely be a challenge for Red Bull Racing to contend for the 2018 constructors championship and for Ricciardo or Verstappen to contend for the 2018 drivers championship.
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Is Christian Horner correct to assume that Red Bull Racing will not contend for the 2018 Formula One constructors championship and neither of the team’s two drivers, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, will contend for the 2018 Formula One drivers championship?
Don’t miss a moment of the 21-race 2018 season to find out. The 2018 season opener, which is the Australian Grand Prix, is now just a few weeks away, as it is set to take place on Sunday, March 25th. It is set to be broadcast live on ESPN at 1:10 am ET on that day.