Christian Horner is "reserving judgement" on how dominant his team are until after three races; Max Verstappen cruised to a dominant victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix; His team-mate Sergio Perez came home second for a Red Bull one-two
Sunday 5 March 2023 19:52, UK
Christian Horner is "reserving judgement" on Red Bull's dominance over the rest of the F1 pack despite a perfect start to the 2023 season at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Defending world champion Max Verstappen cruised to victory by nearly 12 seconds over team-mate Sergio Perez, with Fernando Alonso almost a further half-minute behind in third for Aston Martin.
Ferrari were briefly in contention after Charles Leclerc overtook Perez at the start, but the Monegasque was overtaken by the second Red Bull midway through the race before he retired with an engine failure when running third.
Fernando Alonso came home third for Aston Martin, nearly half a minute behind Perez.
Despite a perfect start to the 2023 season, Horner believes his team have to wait a few more races to confirm if they are as far ahead of the other teams on the grid as they are perceived to be, "reserving judgement" on how the season will unfold.
"It can change very quickly - look at last year how things turn around, Mercedes came from a long way back and they had a winning car at the end of the year with that concept," said Horner.
"Ferrari unlucky with Charles today, but a different circuit in Jeddah - I think we need to wait to see a sample of two or three races, not one track.
"So, let's reserve judgement until a few races in the championship."
Despite attempting to temper expectations, Horner admitted that it had been an "incredible" weekend for his team as they "came out the blocks" in the "best possible way".
"It's been an incredible weekend," he added.
"We biased the car towards the race, the drivers were fantastic today, the pit crew did their job, we were able to make the soft tyre work - the degradation for our cars seemed less than the others and that then gives you options.
"Checo losing out at the start - he had a bit of work to do with Charles - but, again, strategy played well there and he got the pass done, and then it was about managing the race to the end.
"It's only a sample of one (race), all the circuits are different but it's a great start for us to come out the blocks unlike last year when we were sitting here with zero points.
"We came here determined to try and address that this year and we've done it in the best possible way."
Verstappen was "proud" of the performance that his Red Bull team out in to secure his first ever win at the Bahrain Grand Prix as they lived up to the "hype" surrounding their car.
"Everyone was hyping it up but you still have to show it," said Verstappen.
"I knew that we had a good race car but everything has to come together. Luckily it worked out really well.
"The first stint was really important for me just to pull the gap and after that, I could just manage my tyres in case something happened.
"For the whole team today, this is exactly the start we wanted and I am very proud that we could achieve this.
"It has never really been our strength, the first race of the year, but luckily now it seems like it is."
The Formula 1 2023 season continues with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from the sport's fastest street track in Jeddah.
The action is all live on Sky Sports F1 from March 17-19, with Sunday's race at 5pm.
