F1 News: Christian Horner Warns 2025 Season Will Push Teams to Their Limits

Saajan Jogia | Dec 12, 2024

Jun 8, 2024; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Red Bull Racing CEO and team principal Christian Horner in the pit lane at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images / Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner predicts that the 2025 Formula 1 season will hinge on teams uncovering "fine margins" in car development. As the technical race intensifies, teams will need to innovate and cleverly navigate the grey areas of the regulations. With McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes closely matched in on-track performance, success will depend on identifying and optimizing even the smallest areas for improvement.

The second half of the 2024 season showcased how closely matched teams could battle and exchange victories, setting the stage for an exciting 2025. Ultimately, however, it was driver consistency that proved decisive, allowing McLaren to clinch the Constructors' Championship.

Despite Red Bull securing the most race wins throughout the season, McLaren claimed the title with a comfortable margin. Ferrari finished as runner-up, narrowing the gap to just 14 points after the thrilling Abu Dhabi season finale. When asked about the scale of challenge the 2025 season could pose to Red Bull, Horner said:

“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.

“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.

“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.”

Though the 2024 season was quite a contrast to Red Bull's previous year, where it won all but one Grands Prix, Horner believes the current season was still "a hell of a year" to be proud of. Red Bull went through several ups and downs mainly related to car problems and other internal conflicts that portrayed a grim picture. However, it still helped Max Verstappen secure his fourth championship title. Horner added:

“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.

“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.”