Christian Horner just set Red Bull goal that will remind Max Verstappen of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes dominance

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Max Verstappen has made the ground-effect era his own. Whatever happens this season, this period of F1 history belongs to the Red Bull driver.

Verstappen will, at the very least, win three out of four titles in this generation of cars. In the first two years, he stood on the top step in 34 out of 45 Grands Prix.

The Dutchman saw off the threat of Charles Leclerc in 2022, and then produced the single most dominant season the sport has ever seen in ’23. It looked like more of the same would follow in ’24 when he won four of the first five.

But it’s been almost a year since McLaren started to rise. While their surge came too late for Lando Norris to dethrone Verstappen last year, the four-time champion has now been relegated to underdog status.

Norris ended his three-year run atop the championship at the Australian GP, and while Oscar Piastri has since taken over, Verstappen is now 32 points adrift. Red Bull are already 141 behind in the constructors’

Christian Horner says Red Bull would take a podium at Imola amid McLaren dominance

McLaren have won five out of six races so far this year, but they reached a new level of superiority in Miami last time out. As Piastri led home a one-two, nearest challenger George Russell was more than 30 seconds behind.

Speaking live on Sky Sports after FP1 at Imola, team principal Christian Horner admitted it would be ‘very, very hard’ to beat McLaren this weekend. As such, he’s already willing to accept a podium.

It’s extremely rare, certainly in recent years, to hear the team almost writing off their victory chances before a race. To make matters worse, Red Bull have just introduced an upgrade, but they clearly don’t think it can bridge the gap.

This may remind Verstappen of his experience as the ‘best of the rest’ behind the dominant Mercedes team in the late 2010s and, above all, 2020. He finished on the podium at 11 out of 17 events that year but only won twice.

Host Natalie Pinkham asked: “What will represent a good result for you, leaving at the end of the weekend, to celebrate that 400th Grand Prix?”

Horner replied: “To beat the McLarens would be an incredible result and achievement, but that’s going to be very, very hard. I think if we were on the podium here at the 400th race, we’d sign for that.”

Max Verstappen hints at Red Bull’s new plan after FIA reject McLaren complaints

Red Bull may be attempting to play the long game. The focus in Imola, and perhaps Monaco, may be damage limitation.

Come Barcelona, they hope to significantly close the gap to McLaren as the FIA introduce stricter controls on front-wing flexibility. But Verstappen doesn’t seem convinced.

Acknowledging that this rule change alone won’t change the pecking order, Verstappen says Red Bull are hoping to copy McLaren. They’re trying to work out how Zak Brown’s squad manage their tyre temperatures so well.

Verstappen has been supreme in qualifying this year, taking more poles than any other driver. He’s shown that he can stay in the fight if given even a semi-competitive package, but he needs more to win what would be his finest title yet.