Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes McLaren will return to Formula 1’s grid stronger in 2025, having learned valuable lessons from last year’s campaign.
While the Woking-based outfit secured the Constructors' Championship in 2024, ending a 26-year drought, Horner suggests they could have achieved even more.
While Lando Norris was in contention for the Drivers’ title, he ultimately fell short against Max Verstappen, who clinched his fourth consecutive world championship.
Although Red Bull’s RB20 started the season as the dominant force, the team’s advantage diminished over time, and by the latter part of the year, McLaren and Ferrari had arguably surpassed the bulls in outright performance.
McLaren’s MCL38 emerged as the class of the field over the summer but team papaya struggled to fully capitalize on their opportunities.
Reflecting on McLaren’s campaign, Horner suggested that the team had left valuable points on the table, particularly on the drivers’ side.
“I think, when you reflect on it, they missed a lot of opportunities on the driver’s side [last] year,” Horner said, speaking to told PlanetF1.
“They had two competitive drivers, which was strong for them in the Constructors’.
“But I’m sure Lando will perhaps look back and think three or four wins from this campaign, with the car that he had at many races, is probably less than they could have.
“But I’m sure they’ll come back. They’ll learn from that, for sure.”
Red Bull will attempt to fight back this season with a revised line-up, with Liam Lawson stepping up alongside Verstappen following Sergio Perez’s departure.
The Mexican, who endured a challenging 2024 season, will sit out the campaign after scoring just over a third of Verstappen’s points – a shortfall that left Red Bull a distant third in the Constructors’ standings.
Despite McLaren's superiority, Verstappen managed to maintain his lead in the Drivers' championship, ultimately securing the title despite a winless streak of ten races
©RedBull
Horner credited Red Bull’s resilience and ability to extract the maximum from difficult situations as a key factor in Verstappen’s continued success.
“I think that’s always been the strength of this team – that we are an out-and-out race team,” commented the Red Bull chief.
“That’s always been a part of the philosophy that I’ve instilled since the very beginning.
“When I came in 2005, ‘Let’s focus on maximizing our chances and opportunities and punch above our weight where we can’.
“It has always been our ethos.
“We went through some hardened years from 2010 to ’13, and then we went through difficult years from ’14 onwards, but we were still winning races when the occasion allowed.
“There was that determination, grit, and race sharpness within the team that has always enabled us to maximise our results.”
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