CNA – Red Bull boss Christian Horner recognised after Sunday’s landmark Canadian Grand Prix that his runaway Formula One leaders could win every race this season.
He tempered it with the usual ‘taking one race at a time’ talk but with the team winning all eight races so far this season, and nine in a row when last year’s Abu Dhabi finale is included, there was no point pretending otherwise.
“Can we? Yes. Will we? Who knows, because there are so many variables in this game,” Horner told Sky Sports television after Max Verstappen took his 41st career win, equalling Ayrton Senna’s tally, and the team’s milestone 100th.
The question, often asked when a team starts with a winning sequence, is becoming a genuinely serious one now that the numbers are stacking up.
No team has won every race of a season since 1952, McLaren coming closest in 1988 when Alain Prost and Senna won all but one of 16 rounds. Mercedes won 19 of 21 in 2016 and there are 22 this year. Verstappen has won six of the eight and the last four in a row and is heading for another record-breaking season but there are glimmers of hope for his rivals.
The winning margin at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was the smallest so far, not including Australia which effectively ended behind the safety car.
Verstappen finished 9.5 seconds clear of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, compared to the 24 seconds over Mercedes runner-up Lewis Hamilton in Spain or the 27.9 seconds over Alonso in Monaco. The true extent of the gap may have been distorted by Verstappen controlling the race from pole position, although he said he had to push hard to get heat in the tyres, and having a dead bird wedged behind a front brake duct.
“On this venue yes, the gap is shorter… it’s inevitable that they are closing, we’d be surprised if that wouldn’t be the case,” said Horner.
