Christian Horner issues fearful Lewis Hamilton warning to Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen is an unstoppable force in F1 at the moment, but Christian Horner has a warning for his star driver.
Christian Horner has warned Max Verstappen that there is ‘no guarantee’ that Red Bull can continue to give him championship-winning machinery, suggesting that in the future his career could follow a similar trajectory to the plight of former title rival Lewis Hamilton since the end of the 2021 season.
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After Verstappen won the bragging rights from a historic title fight in 2021, neutral fans hoped that the pair would continue their mammoth battle into the new ground-effect regulations. However, this didn’t occur with Red Bull stretching their legs and Mercedes failing to nail the new technical guidelines.
Since then Hamilton has failed to win a single race, but after a faultless start to the 2024 campaign, Verstappen is well on his way to becoming a four-time world champion. The Dutchman has won all but two Grands Prix since Sergio Perez took victory in the fourth round of the 2023 campaign in Baku.
Discussing Verstappen’s current level of success, Horner said: “He’s just hit it like a metronome. The pace that he showed last year, he's just continued that. And I think since the last Chinese Grand Prix, he's won 50 per cent of all the races. He's won 21 out of the last 23 races. He's in fantastic form. He's at one with the car, at one with the team, and enjoying his racing.”
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However, Horner isn’t taking the Dutchman’s current performance level for granted. “I think that you have to appreciate success,” he added. “Max is a special talent. It's a golden moment for him and, as we've seen with every single driver, it doesn't last forever.
“I think it's about enjoying the moment, being in the moment. And there's no guarantees that we'll be able to give him a car like this every year for the next five years. So, it's doing what you can, while you can.”
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If Verstappen’s stellar run is to come to an end then one of Red Bull’s closest competitors will need to take strides forward. Of the chasing pack, the most likely to do this remains Ferrari, although following an impressive start to the campaign, the Scuderia struggled with immense tyre degradation problems in China.
McLaren could also be a threat and with their new in-house wind tunnel now fully operational, Andrea Stella’s outfit have the tools at their disposal with which they can challenge. Mercedes, however, are still struggling to understand the root cause of their issues, while Aston Martin have considerable ground to make up.
