Horner: Verstappen pushing Red Bull to new levels

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has suggested that Max Verstappen is pushing the team to new levels.

Verstappen and Red Bull have dominated the 2023 season with the Dutchman on course to wrap up the drivers’ championship in Qatar this weekend.

It would be his third successive title and follows on from his team wrapping up the constructors’ crown in Japan a fortnight ago.

Red Bull has won all but one race this season while Verstappen has taken 13 of his team’s 15 victories.

“He just gets sharper and sharper,” Horner said of the 26-year-old.

“I mean, the raw speed and ability has been there from day one, and that hunger and passion that he drives with.

“Now he couples that with experience and the way he reads the race, the way he manages tyres, the way he reads the situation. It’s phenomenal.

“He pushes the team, we push him, and we both go to new levels.”

Verstappen has amassed 48 wins from 179 starts, over half of those coming since the start of 2022.

Since joining the Red Bull senior team five rounds into the 20216 campaign, he’s won a race every year.

Such has been his domination this season, however, that he is just 54 points shy of his 2022 points tally with six races remaining.

There are a maximum of 180 points left on offer from the reaming races – three of which are Sprint weekends.

“I think the team, operationally this year, has hit new standards,” Horner added.

“Whether it be strategically, whether it be pit stops, whether it be reliability, etc, I think all of those boxes we’ve managed to be ticking.

“Success only spurs all aspects of the business to do better, and of course hen you have a driver like Max Verstappen that just adds that added motivation that nobody wants to let the team down.”