Red Bull boss, Christian Horner admits surprise that rivals are actually under-delivering compared to last season.

Hush. Whisper it ever so quietly, but having scored four 1-2s in the opening five races, Red Bull could be on its way to dominating a season like no other in the history of the sport.

100% reliability and both drivers scoring points at every opportunity, there are few reasons to bet against the Austrian team wrapping up the titles long before Las Vegas.

While the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari are relying on upgrades, others are hoping that the restriction on aero testing that formed part of the budget cap fine might hinder the Red Bull steamroller, or the intra-team battle might implode, though Stefano Domenicali's hint at flexible rules suggests other methods might be sought.

As we have said in the past, it is not right to handicap success, instead rival teams should be working around the clock - but within the budget, of course - to close the gap.

However, the fact is that after last year's domination, rather than coming out of the starting gate fighting a number of teams have clearly lost ground.

Asked if he expects a sustained challenge in the forthcoming races, accepting that the likes of Monaco will always throw up the odd surprise, Horner admitted: "You can never write anybody off.

"It's been the best start that we've had," he continued, in a masterpiece of understatement, "and we feel we've made a good step from RB18 into 19. It's the kind of step you would expect.

"I think it's more that, it feels like others have lost ground," said. "I'm sure they're working hard to address that. Big gains could come quite quickly."

"It's surprised us that others have perhaps under-delivered compared to where they were last year," he added, referring to the fact that this is the second year since the rules overhaul and that therefore rival teams should have taken a step forward.

"But no doubt they will be looking to address that. I'm sure starting at Imola we're going to see big updates starting to come through.

"Until mathematically when things are done, which is still a long, long way away," replied the Briton, when asked if Imola doesn't deliver the hoped for improvements at the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari the season is effectively over.

"We've got a great car, a great team, two great drivers," he continued, "but there's still a long way to go. Let's reserve judgment until after we see what they turn up with at Imola and Barcelona."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Spindoctor, 12/05/2023 14:13

"Another yawn-inducing wind-up from Horner. He's the only one to be "surprised"
Just as Mercedes "lucked-in" with the start of the hybrid era, so RBR have benefitted from the introduction of the Ground-effect one. It took several years for everyone to catch Merc & it's not unreasonable to expect that RBR will dominate for at least 3 seasons - though the competition may well start to hot up next season.
It's easy to forget that Merc faced stiff competition for the last 2-3 years of their dominance."

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2. Posted by Celtic Tiger, 11/05/2023 19:10

"Never fails for Red Bull to be ungracious in both victory and defeat. Its quite easy to humble-brag when you've got the ultimate confidence that comes with a beast of a car designed by a stellar group of people. Add to that, two very capable drivers. It reminds me of Toto, Hamilton and Rosberg back in 2014-16. Bemoaning a lack of competition with the rest of the grid.

I'm still amused by Vettel calling Rosberg out at that press conference asking to be invited into their (Merc's) garage. Classic Vettel.
"

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3. Posted by rambler, 11/05/2023 18:28

"Or could it be that everybody else stuck to the budget cap, Christian?"

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4. Posted by dejan, 11/05/2023 16:42

"This is just bragging - just like Mercedes dominated the previous 7-8 years now Red Bull have figured out the best design (partly because of Adrian Newey but probably due to some luck as well) and now he's just taunting the rest of the field to catch up."

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5. Posted by elsiebc, 11/05/2023 16:16

"All hail the budget cap! The teams are making so much money from the success of the series yet they aren't allowed to invest it to give us a more entertaining race. Instead money is spent on people with pretend names to tell us who the drivers are, write one chord drone pulses, and warble a most meaningful song."

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Horner surprised at rivals failure to deliver

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