Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner believes Ferrari must go back to being a “race team” in order to stand a chance of returning to winning ways again in Formula 1.
Ferrari has failed to win an F1 championship of any description since the team took the Constructors’ crown in 2008. Prior to that, the Italian marque had sustained a period of dominance that spanned six consecutive title successes between 1999 and 2004.
Although Ferrari has been responsible for the only non-Red Bull victory of 2023 with Carlos Sainz in Singapore, the Scuderia currently languish third in the teams’ championship.
Horner has been ever-present at the helm of Red Bull since 2005, overseeing a run of four successive title doubles with Sebastian Vettel in the early 2010s before disrupting Mercedes’ record run by establishing a new phase of supremacy with Max Verstappen.
During Horner’s time at Red Bull, Ferrari has gone through six team bosses, with Frenchman Frederic Vasseur the next tasked with reviving the Maranello side’s fortunes.
However, speaking on the Eff Won podcast, Horner believes Ferrari’s biggest problem stems from the Italian country retaining too much of an influence on the race team.
“I think the biggest problem for Ferrari is that it’s a national team,” Horner addressed. “It needs to get back to being a race team.
“It’s an Italian institution and there’s probably too many people at the top end. Everybody has an input and has a say.
“From the outside looking in, one of our strengths is that we move quickly, we make decisions and we stick to them. And if we make the wrong decision, we change the decision.
“I think, for Ferrari, the newspapers have such an influence on what happens there. So it’s a lot of pressure, being at Ferrari.”
Carlos Sainz Jr (ESP) Ferrari SF-23 and Max Verstappen (NLD) Red Bull Racing RB19 in qualifying parc ferme.
Formula 1 World Championship, Italian Grand Prix, Rd 15, Saturday 2nd September 2023. Monza Italy.
However, Marko says he was able to convince Horner to remain with the Austrian outfit, who have since gone on to produce statistically the greatest F1 campaign ever.
Red Bull claimed the championship with a record number of races to spare, having already surpassed McLaren’s 1988 benchmark for the most wins in a row.
Meanwhile, last time out in Brazil, Verstappen’s latest triumph saw Red Bull equal Mercedes’ total from 2016 for the most victories by a team in a single season.
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