"All this just to win the championship in the first half" - Fans react to Red Bull boss's claims of experiencing diminishing returns with its car

F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi - Practice
Christian Horner attends the Drivers Press Conference during practice ahead of the 2023 F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner recently stated that his team is now experiencing diminishing returns while developing their next car for the 2024 F1 season. The reigning world champions were so dominant in 2023 with RB19 that they are now struggling to one-up their own machine for the future.

Speaking to the BBC, Horner said that a lot of teams will be taking inspiration from the RB19 and implementing some of the aerodynamic aspects on their 2024 F1 cars. Furthermore, he claimed Red Bull's development curve has started to plateau due to less wind tunnel allowance and said:

"Because there is a reset for the following year and I'm convinced you will see a lot of cars looking like RB19 philosophy. We have got up the [development] curve quicker than others, but we are seeing diminishing returns."
"And with the lack of wind tunnel time we’ve had, even though we transitioned early, we still had less time in practice than a great many of our opponents. So [we] have had to be very frugal and selective."

After Christian Horner's claims of Red Bull facing difficulty improving their car surfaced, several F1 fans reacted to these comments. Since the Austrian-British team have already obliterated the entire field and proven to be extremely dominant, people joked about how the team wants to end the championship fight even before the first half of the season.

Some also speculated that the team was sandbagging with these kinds of statements for their 2024 F1 car. Since the Milton Keynes-based outfit has been so dominant for the last two years, fans feel they will still continue their reign in the 2024 F1 season despite their team principal claiming diminishing returns in development.

Here are some of the reactions:


Christian Horner labels succeeding with Red Bull powertrains his biggest challenge in F1

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner recently claimed that his biggest challenge in Formula 1 is yet to come. Speaking to Sky Sports, he stated that successfully setting up and winning in F1 with his team's power unit division will be most demanding.

Horner said:

“With Red Bull Powertrains coming in 2026, it is by far the biggest challenge that I’ll have in my time in Formula 1, so it still motivates me to get out of bed every day and I’m excited every day that I go to work.”

The Austrian-British team has expanded significantly since their inception in 2005 and they will become a works team in 2026. At the start of 2023, they announced their partnership with Ford and how the American automotive giant will help them develop new power units for the future.

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