Christian Horner has responded to Lewis Hamilton’s comments on the RB19, after the Mercedes driver claimed it was the “fastest car I’ve ever seen in Formula 1”. The RB19 has shown that it has superior straight-line speed in 2023, particularly in Saudi Arabia and Australia where Max Verstappen appeared to be significantly faster than Hamilton using DRS. “It’s obviously very flattering, particularly considering some of the cars that Lewis has driven in recent history,” Horner told media, including RacingNews365.com . But while they have shown their advantage, Red Bull have not been without their problems so far. A difficult weekend in Bahrain left them chasing car set-up , then reliability problems in Saudi Arabia and Australia showed how potentially fragile the RB19 can be during one of the longest seasons in F1 history. Horner says the team are “conscious” of this as they look to extend their advantage throughout the year. “We’re conscious it’s a very long season, there’s still 21 races to go and six Sprint races, and we’re conscious that big updates are coming for others in coming weeks as we head back to Europe,” he said. Horner surprised by Red Bull gap to rivals Even though Red Bull finished 2022 by winning nearly all of the races in the second half of the season, Horner did not expect the team to emerge further ahead of their main rivals Ferrari and Mercedes. “At times, in all honesty, yes,” he said when asked about whether he is surprised about the gap between the top teams. “We see that some teams have made a step forward and some haven’t. But that’s going to change from circuit to circuit, venue to venue. “I’ve always said it’s going to take three or four races to get a real pattern as to what is the actual form book for the season.”
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