"If you really want something, and you apply yourself, anything's possible" - Red Bull's Christian Horner on lessons learnt from 2021 title fight

Christian Horner believes the 2021 title fight between the Red Bull F1 team and Mercedes proved if the pursuit of desire exists, success is inevitable. Speaking to Motorsport Network and select media at the Saudi Arabian race weekend, the Milton Keynes team’s CEO revealed they were able to overcome challenges throughout by being persistent and relentless in achieving their goal.

Highlighting the lessons learned from the 2021 title fight, Horner said:

“I think what it demonstrated to me is that if you want something bad enough, if you really believe in something, then anything is possible in life. Coming into last year, nobody could have predicted it. Mercedes was coming off the back of its most successful campaign with probably their best ever car.”

The desire to achieve a goal with belief can make the impossible possible, according to Horner. The Red Bull chief felt that given Mercedes' success in 2020, it was hard to predict a title win for his team at the beginning of the 2021 season.

Revealing the lesson learnt on a personal level, Horner said:

“It was a subtle regulation change over the winter, but probably 65% of the chassis, the gearbox, suspension, was all carried over from what had been their domineering car."

"Yet we were able to turn up from the first race and be competitive and sustain that challenge, race in, race out, no matter what was thrown at us. So I think it just demonstrated to me that: forget all the noise. If you really want something, and you apply yourself, anything's possible.”

A regulation change in the winter prior to the 2021 season had given Red Bull a slight advantage over their rivals Mercedes. However, the team brought a car to the preseason tests that was capable of fighting a championship.

Horner believes his personal lesson from the battle is that success is about persisting in the belief and pursuit of a goal by eliminating the negative chatter around.

---

Christian Horner revealed Red Bull started working late on the 2022 car compared to their rivals

According to Horner’s revelation, the Milton Keynes team started working on their 2022 F1 car much later than some of their rivals such as Ferrari and Mercedes. Ferrari were one of the first teams to divert most of their resources earlier in 2021, while Mercedes followed much later. However, Horner believes his team were still developing the 2021 car instead of focusing on the 2022 car.

Speaking about the development of the 2022 F1 challenger, the Red Bull chief said:

“We developed RB16B to a later point in the year than our rivals were claiming, so we were relatively late on to the 2022 car.. We were hearing in Austria that our rivals were putting all their resource onto the following year's car, and we were still in the midst of the current car.”

Despite the late switch to the development race, RB16B has been a competitive product of the team’s efforts. However, Red Bull's 2021 rivals Mercedes can’t say same with their early struggles with the W13 despite an early switch to the 2022 car development.