26/09/2023
NEWS STORY
The Red Bull team boss was speaking following a faultless performance from Max Verstappen which secured the Austrian team's sixth Constructors' Championship.
"To do better than we're doing I think is impossible," the Briton told reporters. "To complete a season like this, it's a golden moment," he added. "We're riding a wave, and of course we want to try and ride that wave as long as we can.
"To achieve this sixth Constructors' Championship is beyond our wildest dreams," he continued. "Coming into the season I don't think we could have ever dreamt of having a year like this.
"To produce the kind of car that we have, and achieve these kinds of results, it's been an incredible performance. Everybody is invested in one thing, and that's the car.
"Last year was a very strong year for us," he continued. "But to have kept that momentum rolling with the challenges that we've had is testimony to all the men and women in the team that have worked tirelessly to produce a car that's competitive."
Asked if he could think of one word to describe his team's season, he replied: "You're going to pick something like ‘unbelievable' as one word."
Noting that Max Verstappen's 400 points alone were enough to be leading the Constructors' Championship, Horner insisted: "But it's the combination of the two drivers that have obviously provided the amount of victories we've had across the season. We've had 13 with Max, two with Checo.
"Singapore, if nothing else, demonstrates there can be zero complacency," he admitted, "that we have to keep pushing the boundaries. Sometimes the races you lose are the weekends you learn the most at. It was a big reminder to everybody that it's very easy to miss the target. We all left Singapore knowing that, ultimately, the winning run that we had would come to an end. But it's a little frustrating.
"Formula 1 is a fast-moving business, you see how quickly teams move up, move down. It's one of the biggest team sports in the world. It's the result of all those 22 different departments, all the support functions, all of the backroom staff that we have work crazy hours, the sacrifices they've made, to produce these kinds of cars and this kind of result.
"To all our partners, it's the collection of an incredible effort of everybody doing their bit to achieve results like we've done," he said. "Honda has been a great partner for us. It's very fitting to win this championship here with Honda in front of all the fans here. The support we've had the whole weekend has just been phenomenal."
Asked about his drivers, Horner smiled and replied: "Max is just on another level at the moment, so it was an incredible performance."
Referring to teammate Perez, he added: "It was a shocker of a race for him today. It got off to a bad start where he sort of got concertinaed on the rundown to turn 1 and picked up some front wing damage.
"It just wasn't his day." he added. "The only good thing was we were able to serve the penalty here, so he leaves it here in Japan. He'll bounce back at the next race - and you know, he's a big part of the success as well."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Suzuka here.