‘The biggest winner will be F1’ – Christian Horner reveals plans to avenge constructors’ defeat as he predicts ‘massively close’ 2025

Christian Horner is expecting a “massively close” battle to unfold at the front of the field in 2025, with the Red Bull boss admitting that consistency will be crucial as his team look to fight back following their loss of the constructors’ championship.

While Max Verstappen successfully defended the drivers’ title to become world champion for a fourth consecutive year, Red Bull were beaten to the teams’ crown by McLaren, while Ferrari also ended the season ahead of them in second place.

Reflecting on McLaren’s victory following the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – a race in which Verstappen was involved in a collision with Oscar Piastri on the first lap before Lando Norris went on to win – Horner acknowledged that the Woking outfit had earned their triumph.

“Congratulations to McLaren, to all the men and women there,” said Horner. “We know how hard it is to win a constructors’ World Championship and the dedication and effort that has to go into that, so to Zak [Brown] and Andrea [Stella] and their shareholders, but most of all the men and women at McLaren, congratulations.

“They’ve been outstanding this year, they’ve had two drivers that have performed extremely well and were deserving victors in the end. I’m sure that we raised pulses and blood pressure at the start of the race with the moment with Oscar [when Verstappen collided with the Australian] but, yeah, they deserved that constructors’ championship this year, despite the fact that we won more races, more Sprint races.

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“Obviously collectively we didn’t put enough points on the board to defend that title, so very well done to them.”

After holding a solid lead in the constructors’ standings in the early stages of the season, Red Bull slipped backwards as the campaign progressed amid Sergio Perez’s struggles and increased competition from their rivals.

Pushed on just how big the challenge will be for the team to raise their game again in 2025, Horner voiced his expectation that the margins will be incredibly fine amongst the leading four outfits on the grid – Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes.

“I think if you looked at points since the summer break until before this race... Charles [Leclerc] was very slightly ahead in terms of individual points scored, so you can see it’s going to be massively close next year,” the Team Principal commented.

“You’ve got at least four teams that are going to be in contention – in the last year of these regulations – of winning Grands Prix, so I think the biggest winner will be Formula 1 next year.

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - DECEMBER 08: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) — Verstappen successfully defended his drivers' title in 2024, but Horner is expecting a tough battle amongst the top four teams in 2025

“I think that it’s going to be fine margins everywhere, and of course getting out the blocks as well is always imperative, but you can see it’s such a long season that consistency will be key.”

And despite their relative struggles in 2024 compared to the dominance they enjoyed in 2023, Horner believes that Red Bull have a lot to be proud of reflecting back on the year.

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“It’s certainly been a busy year, off track and on track, but I think what is the most important thing to reflect on this year is the way that the team has stuck together, has worked as a team,” he explained.

“And whilst Abu Dhabi didn’t go our way, one week ago we won a big race in Qatar and the nine victories that we achieved [across the season with] all those things that I just mentioned.

“If you weren’t comparing it to 2023 [when Red Bull won 21 out of 22 races], it’s still a hell of a year, so to all the men and women back at Milton Keynes who have worked crazy hours, they can be very proud of what they’ve achieved this year.”