Christian Horner said he never expected to see Red Bull arrive in the middle of 2022 with more than a 63-point lead in the Drivers' and 82-point lead in the Constructors' World Championships, but sees the result as the fruit of "determination, dedication and hard work".
In 12 races contested so far, Red Bull has eight wins - seven with Max Verstappen and one with Sergio Pérez - a result that not even Christian Horner imagined the Taurinos would achieve after a busy season in 2021. The Englishman, however, took the opportunity to highlight the hard work that the base in Milton Keynes has done since the outcome of last year's title, even though he started focusing on 2022 after the main rivals.
In all, Verstappen opened up a 63-point lead over Charles Leclerc with his French GP win added to the Monegasque's abandonment - who spun and crashed on his own, paving the way for another quiet triumph for the #1 on the year.
"If you had told me before Christmas last year that after the biggest rule change in the last 40 years and after the effort we made in the last World Cup, we would now have eight wins, two sprint race wins, and one sprint race win.If you had told me before Christmas last year that after the biggest rule change in 40 years and after the effort we made in the World Championship last year, we would now have eight wins, two sprint race wins and a lead of 63 and 82 points in the championship, I would have exceeded my wildest dreams," Horner admitted to the Dutch version of Motorsport.com.
"This is indicative of the determination, dedication and hard work behind the scenes at the factory. We see a very competitive Ferrari this year and a Mercedes gaining momentum. But when you take into account that we were the last team on the grid to start focusing entirely on this season, we have done a phenomenal job," he extolled.
Horner then explained that one of the points that helped Red Bull's performance seen in Paul Ricard was much less tire degradation than expected, especially after the problems the team faced in Austria.
"We went into the undercut earlier inside than we scheduled for a stop. Honestly, the tire wear was also less than expected before the race when we were leaning towards doing two pit-stops. But as the race progressed, we were moving more and more towards just one stop. On lap 16, we pulled the trigger as we saw that we could leave Max with a clear track," continued the manager.
"Half a lap later, he [Verstappen] had the position on the track, and from then on it was about taking care of the tires. Two laps later, Charles abandoned and everyone got a free pit-stop under safety-car. We were lucky enough to have enough lead for the two Mercedes cars," Horner concluded.