Horner labels Verstappen unbeatable but Wolff calls winning run ‘irrelevant’
Red Bull’s team principal, Christian Horner, celebrated Max Verstappen’s record-breaking 10th consecutive win at the Italian Grand Prix by declaring that he believes his driver is currently unbeatable.
Verstappen’s victory for Red Bull at Monza sealed the record after a run of dominant performances this season. It has given him an all-but-unassailable lead in the world championship which the 25-year-old Dutchman could close out as early as the Japanese Grand Prix, with six races remaining.
Since his teammate, Sergio Pérez, won in Baku in April, Verstappen has barely been challenged since.
Horner believes he is operating to an almost untouchable standard. “Max, what he’s doing, he’s breaking records, he’s driving at an unbelievable level,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anybody in the world right now that could beat Max Verstappen in this car, that’s for sure.”
He also insisted that Verstappen be given credit for his achievement amid concerns his dominance was not good for the sport as a whole. “You have to recognise and applaud what Max is doing at the moment,” Horner said. “It’s very special to have achieved what he achieved. We shouldn’t detract from that in any way. In sport, very rarely things like this happen. I think it’s a golden moment for him and a golden moment for the team.”
Red Bull has enjoyed an advantage over the rest of the field this season, with the team still unbeaten in 2023 and Verstappen praised their performance. “I’m just proud of the whole team effort all year,” he said. “What we are doing at the moment to go and win every race this year is something we definitely are enjoying because I don’t think these kind of seasons come around very often and that’s the same with winning 10 in a row.”
They have won 24 of the past 25 races and Horner, too, acknowledged in terms of success that they were in almost uncharted territory. “Everything we’re doing at the moment, we’re making history and it’s not often you get the chance to do that.”
The Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, branded Verstappen’s achievement “completely irrelevant,” claiming it is not a record he would have been concerned with when Mercedes were on their run of eight consecutive constructors’ titles and seven drivers’ titles.
“For me these types of records are completely irrelevant,” Wolff said. “They were irrelevant in our good days in Mercedes, I don’t know how many races we won in a row, and I didn’t even know that there was a count for how many races in a row you win. The result itself shows that a great driver in a great car is competing on an extremely high level.”