Horner admits seeing 'diminishing returns' from 2024 Red Bull

Christian Horner has admitted that Red Bull's testing has shown an inability to achieve increased speed, admitting that he has observed 'diminishing returns'.

Red Bull enjoyed a record-breaking 2023 season, claiming victory in 21 out of 22 Grand Prix race weekends and achieving their first-ever 1-2 in the drivers' championship.

However, in what Horner has described as a 'unicorn year', he has also shared insights into pre-season testing that haven't been yielding ideal results.

"I'm sure over the next two years we will see a lot, lot closer racing,” said Horner to the BBC. “We will not repeat this year. This will go down as a unicorn year, that's for sure.

“We have got up the [development] curve quicker than others, but we are seeing diminishing returns.

“And with the lack of wind tunnel time we’ve had, even though we transitioned early, we still had less time in practice than a great many of our opponents. So [we] have had to be very frugal and selective.”

Horner also anticipates that other teams may copy the current Red Bull specification of the car considering its significant dominance.

“Because there is a reset for the following year,” added Horner. “And I'm convinced you will see a lot of cars looking like RB19 philosophy.”

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Verstappen thoughts

Three-time world champion Max Verstappen also shared his thoughts on the BBC 5 Live review show, discussing how teams will approach the 2024 season.

"The others are not stupid," Verstappen said. "They are all learning. Of course, the longer you keep the regulations the same, the closer it will get, because people start to understand which direction they have to develop in.

"Luckily, we hit the ground running really well with the regulations [in 2022], but I definitely expect next year, for sure, all will definitely take a step towards us.

"I don't know which particular team, because if you look at the whole season it has been a bit up and down for everyone except us, so I don't really know in the winter which team is going to make the biggest jump. Hopefully, of course, they still stay behind but we'll see in Bahrain."

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