So it’s no wonder that Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was asked after the obvious changing of the guard at the top of Formula 1 on Sunday in Monza, whether his team will now be able to do such a series? “I wish I could inflict that amount of pain on Toto[Wolff]over the next eight years,” laughs Horner. The Brit and his counterpart in the Silver Arrows will no longer be best friends after the nerve-wracking World Cup battle in 2021.
Toto Wolff and Christian Horner have been pretty much best enemies since 2021
Red Bull enables Verstappen to hunt a record
The other numbers also speak a clear language: Verstappen celebrates his fifth win in a row on Sunday and is slowly crawling up to Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine triumphs in a row from 2013. Even more at risk: The all-time record for the most wins of the season by Vettel and Michael Schumacher, although significantly fewer races were driven in 2013 (Vettel; 19 GPs) and 2004 (Schumacher; 18 GPs) than in 2022.
“Max is now at eleven (victories; ed.) and there are still six races to go. 13 is the record and it would be nice if we could increase that to 14,” says Red Bull’s motorsport consultant Helmut Marko, aiming for the end of the season out. According to the Austrian, another thing is that “we’ve achieved first and second place in the World Cup for the first time, we haven’t managed that yet.”
Helmut Marko with his former record hunter Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari’s misery can, however, be read off figures similar to those of Red Bull’s flight. Unbelievable: With his eighth pole position of the season, Leclerc achieved the most poles by a Ferrari driver since Michael Schumacher in 2004. The problem: the Monegasque was unable to win all of the last six races from pole!
So it’s no wonder that Verstappen can theoretically become world champion at the next Grand Prix in Singapore: If he gets 22 World Championship points more than Leclerc – and 13 or six more than the other pursuers Perez and George Russell – his second title is certain . “But I don’t think it’s happening there yet,” explains Marko with a view to the next race and laughs: “Even though Singapore would of course be a good place to celebrate and certainly better than Suzuka.”
