Horner confirms Hamilton’s fears about 2024 Red Bull F1 car

Following Sunday’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which was won at a canter by Max Verstappen, Hamilton admitted Red Bull’s pace was “definitely a concern” for Mercedes. 

Three-time world champion Verstappen won by 17.9 seconds from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to claim a record-extending 19th win from 22 races in Red Bull’s ultra dominant RB19. 

"At this moment, I don't really know [about next year]. For Red Bull to win by 17 seconds and they haven't developed their car since August is definitely a concern," seven-time world champion Hamilton told Sky after finishing ninth in Abu Dhabi. 

"We have learned a lot about the car and it's just down to the team now. They know what they need to do. Whether or not we will get there, we will see.”

Red Bull team principal Horner has since revealed that his side were indeed able to start work on their 2024 challenger - the RB20 - early, backing up Hamilton’s big concern. 

“Thankfully, we had a good base to start because if we’d have been consumed with the very limited amount of wind tunnel we had in terms of developing RB19, it would really compromise us very badly on to RB20,” Horner told Motorsport Magazine. 

“But because we had a great starting block with ’19 enabled us to apply the limited amount of resource that we had available to RB20 reasonably early for us, while spinning both plates. That’s why development has been very frugal on this car really since the middle of the year.

“Next year’s car is an evolution. Obviously you start to get into diminishing returns. But you know, the team have done an outstanding job this year. It’s the most successful car ever in F1’s history. And they can all be very, very proud of that.”