Christian Horner is not bothered by Red Bull’s Constructors’ Championship defeat, saying that he would take the world championship any day.
Red Bull clinched their first driver’s title since 2014 when Max Verstappen won the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP. However, rivals Mercedes pipped them to the Constructors’ Championship, a title that has eluded them for the same amount of time.
The two championships are given to the best driver and team respectively, so losing out on the latter would suggest that they were in fact inferior to the winners. It is a mild bit of sadness for those working in the team, but the Red Bull Team Principal denied that being the case.
Horner revealed that he was not bothered by his team’s Constructors’ Championship defeat, and insisted that they wanted the other prize more.
Speaking at the F1 prizegiving ceremony as quoted by RaceFans, he said, “The constructors is where the money is.
“That is where the revenues that come into the sport are distributed based on your performance in the championship. And I think every employee within our team, probably most of the teams, is rewarded on where they are in the constructors’ championship as opposed to the drivers.
“Now the drivers’ obviously has the popularity and it has the prestige. I don’t think there’s a single employee within our business that would have traded a first place in the constructors for this drivers championship.
“Everybody – when you see the reaction that Max had when he visited the factory yesterday – is so proud of what he’s achieved. The prestige of the drivers’ world championship – that’s the big one.
“That’s the one that you really want. And that’s why it meant so much achieving that on Sunday evening.”
Not afraid
Horner was asked if they were cautious with their celebrations due to the controversy and legal issues with their win. He denied those claims and said that they knew they had done nothing wrong.
“We didn’t really feel that there was the grounds for a threat,” he said.
“The determination of the race director is always to get the race going again. That’s been a clear mandate for many, many years now. So a lot was made of it. But that’s the way it is.”
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