"My talent had limitations": Red Bull boss Christian Horner opens up on why he cut short his racing career

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has reminisced about his racing career. Before leading the Austrian-British team, Horner was an F1 aspirant himself. However, while competing against other drivers in the junior categories, he had a moment of realization that he wouldn't be able to go higher in the series. So he committed his life to creating a team and dominating in Formula 1.

Speaking on the Secrets of Success podcast, Horner claimed that he was a decent racer and that he reached the category that was just below Formula 1. However, he admitted that several drivers were better than him.

After getting into Formula 3000, Red Bull's team principal realized that his talents were not enough for him to go even further.

"I was okay, and I reached a level in motorsport that was just below Formula 1. There were lots of drivers who were better than I was. The higher you rise, the more competitive it becomes. So I won races in the lower Formulae, but by the time I got to Formula 3000, which was a precursor to Formula 2, I recognized that my talent had limitations, and I was competing against great drivers like Juan Pablo Montoya and so on, and recognize that I can't do what they can," he said.

By the time Horner was moving up the ranks, he also had an interest in creating his team and competing in F1. Hence, he shifted his career from racing to managing a team.

"Where I had a real interest was that...in order to get that far in the sport I had to create my own team and race for it," he elaborated.

Eventually, he landed the role of team principal in the newly formed Red Bull Racing team, and the rest is history as he continued to manage the team and won multiple world championships as a team principal.

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Red Bull engineer claims the team is already working on the 2025 F1 car

While every team is now preparing their 2024 F1 cars for the next season, it seems like Red Bull is an entire year ahead of the grid.

Ben Waterhouse, the head of performance engineering for the team, claimed that the new RB20 is already six months old and that Red Bull is already thinking about the RB21, which will hit the track in 2025.

"The RB20 is a car that is at least six months old and we are already starting to move our attention on the RB21, even if the season has not yet started," he told Racecar Engineering.

Red Bull are currently dominating the field. In the 2023 F1 season, the team won 21 out of 22 races, scoring a whopping 860 points.