Christian Horner has declared that Red Bull and Max Verstappen are still committed to developing this season’s car, despite the new technical regulations which come into play in 2026.
His comments came after the Chinese Grand Prix, in which Max Verstappen secured a respectable P4 finish, but Liam Lawson could only manage P12.
The New Zealander actually finished P15 on the road, but the disqualifications of Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, and Pierre Gasly meant he was promoted three positions.
Verstappen sits 2nd in the Drivers’ Standings after the second race weekend of the season, but with Lawson yet to score a point, Red Bull are already getting cut adrift in the Constructers Championship.
After a 1-2 finish in Shanghai, McLaren are top of the team standings, and already have a 42 point lead over Red Bull in 3rd.
Christian Horner:Everything to play for in 2025
By Red Bull’s recent standards, it has been an incredibly poor start to the 2025 Formula 1 season.
There is a school of thought which suggests that the Milton Keynes based team should abandon focus on upgrading the RB21, and instead shift all resources towards the 2026 car.
However, when asked by Sky Sports F1 about whether attention is switching to next season, Horner insisted his team and Max Verstappen are concentrating on this year.
He said: “It’s race 2, you can’t be that defeatist.
“We’re 8 points behind in the drivers’ championship after two races, and there’s everything to play for.
“If nothing else, last year teaches you that you can start as strong as you like, but it’s how you finish.
“We’ve got great strength and depth in our team, everybody in the company knows we’ve got a bit of pace to find and we’ve got the tools, we’ve got the people in order to do that.”
Max Verstappen integrated with the engineers
Max Verstappen is widely regarded as the best driver on the current grid, so naturally he will feel that he deserves to be driving the best car.
Rumours have been swirling about the Dutchman’s potential departure from Red Bull for over a year, and the lack of pace in the RB21 has only added fuel to the flames.
Despite this, Horner is adamant that the four time world champion is enjoying the challenge.
He said: “Max is working harder than I’ve ever seen him.
“He’s more integrated into the engineering group than I’ve ever seen, and he seems to be enjoy that aspect.
“He’s of course, like any driver, impatient for performance, but he’s working with the engineers to say, ‘OK, what about this, what about this? This is what I’m experiencing as a driver, this is where I need the lap time from’, and that’s the only way collectively that we’re gonna get performance.”
