Christian Horner admits that his team's outstanding track record year-to-date has surpassed his "wildest expectations".
At Paul Ricard last weekend, reigning world champion Max Verstappen delivered to the bulls their eighth Grand Prix win of the season, the Dutchman himself sealing seven of those wins to lead the world championship by 63 points while Red Bull now tops the Constructors' standings with an 82-point lead over Ferrari.
"Look, if you would have told me that going into last year that with the biggest regulation change in 40 years and with the effort we put into last year’s championship, that we’d be sitting here with eight Grand Prix victories, two Sprint victories and leading both championships with 64 and 82 points, that would have been beyond my wildest expectations," admitted Horner after the team's triumph in France.
"And I think that it is really a testament to the determination, dedication and the hard work that has gone on behind the scenes at the factory.
"Now, we've seen Ferrari are very competitive also this year, we’ve seen other teams – Mercedes for sure are gathering momentum – but considering that we were probably the last team to transition [development] fully onto this car it’s been a phenomenal job."
F1 fans were deprived last weekend of a likely battle royale between Verstappen and arch-rival Charles Leclerc due to a mistake by the latter that gave the Red Bull charger a clear path to a 27th career win in F1.
©RedBull
Beyond his driver's achievements, Horner remains might impressed week in and week out with Verstappen.
"I think he is driving with great maturity," added Britain. "You can see the way he and Charles are racing each other, there is a real respect between the two drivers.
"It’s a shame we didn’t get to see how today would have played out because the second half of the race would have been the opposite of the first, where we would have had track position and Ferrari would have had a slightly younger tyre advantage."
Despite Red Bull's dominant position, Horner – taking a leaf out of Mercedes boss Toto Wolff's book of conduct – isn't getting the least bit complacent, especially ahead of this week's round of racing in Hungary where he expects Ferrari to strongly bounce back.
"I think the second half of the season, obviously it’s going to very competitive," said Horner.
"We’ve got different circuits, different challenges coming up and there are some interesting venues coming up.
"We’ve got Hungary coming up next weekend, which will probably play more to the Ferrari’s strengths than our strengths.
"And then we’ve got some circuits coming up after the break that come back towards us a little bit. It’s going to be fascinating how it moves around over the next few races."
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