Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has proudly highlighted Max Verstappen’s consistency in Formula 1, even as the sport celebrated its sixth different winner of the season on Sunday. Lewis Hamilton’s impressive British Grand Prix victory marked a milestone, ending his two and a half year and 56-race winless streak.
This season is the first since 2012 to see six different drivers winning races, a shift from the previous dominance by Red Bull and Mercedes. Hamilton’s 104th F1 victory followed wins by Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, and George Russell.
“I think Formula One couldn’t be in a better place at the moment,” Horner told the media, including RacingNews365. “If you look at the last five, six races, we’ve had Lewis, we’ve had Lando, we’ve had Max, we’ve had Charles. It’s moving around.”
However, Horner couldn’t help but point out, “The only one that’s managed to be there consistently has been Max. I think the sport is really in a…you can see by the crowds that it’s delivering, and I’m sure Lewis’ win was a very popular one in front of a home crowd.”
Despite the controversy of the 2021 season that saw Hamilton denied an eighth drivers’ championship in dramatic fashion, allowing Verstappen to claim his first, Horner graciously acknowledged Hamilton’s achievement at Silverstone. Hamilton beat Verstappen by 1.5 seconds, ending a 946-day winless drought and becoming the first driver in F1 history to win the same race nine times.
Horner remarked, “We have to congratulate Lewis on winning. I thought he drove a very good race, and he was a deserving winner. Of course, a hugely emotional thing, and for any driver to win a race nine times is an outstanding achievement, and to have won it here in the UK, which obviously is very special for him as a British driver, he should be very proud of that. So we take our cap off to him. He did a very, very good job.”
