Team boss Horner says they\u2019re \u2018not taking anything for granted\u2019 after dominant display in Bahrain
\n LONDON
\nRed Bull were so dominant in Formula One\u2019s Bahrain season-opener that Mercedes rival George Russell suggested they could win every race this year.
\nThe Briton was not alone in pointing to such a scenario, even if such a sweep would be unprecedented in a championship that started in 1950 with far fewer rounds than the current record 23.
\nThe mood in the paddock after Sunday\u2019s race at Sakhir, and the airport talk among departing insiders, reflected a realisation that Red Bull may have given only a glimpse of their real pace.
\nDouble world champion Max Verstappen finished 11.987 seconds ahead of Mexican teammate Sergio Perez and 38.6 seconds clear of Aston Martin\u2019s third-placed Fernando Alonso, who provided welcome thrills and emotion.
\nThe Ferrari of Carlos Sainz was 48 seconds behind the winner and Verstappen was also racing without pressure, holding plenty in reserve.
\n\u201cRed Bull have got this championship sewn up,\u201d Russell told reporters after finishing seventh.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone will be fighting with them this year. They should win every single race, that\u2019s my bet.\u201d
\nRed Bull team boss Christian Horner naturally played down such talk and said Sunday had still been a tense and nervous experience because so many things could go wrong.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re not taking anything for granted,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s see Jeddah in two weeks, Melbourne after that. Once we\u2019ve got two or three circuits under our belt we\u2019ll get a much better picture of strengths and weaknesses of our car and our opposition.
\n\u201cTwenty three races is a marathon … we fully expect our rivals to come back hard in the future races.\u201d
\nDOMINANT TEAMS
\nRed Bull won 17 of 22 last year, and Verstappen all but two of those. Mercedes in the past decade, McLaren with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in 1988, and Michael Schumacher with Ferrari in the early years of this century were all similarly dominant but none managed to hog the top of the podium all year.
\nIn 1988, McLaren won 16 of 17 races but Gerhard Berger broke the run with an emotional victory for Ferrari at Monza less than a month after the death of team founder Enzo. Teams can turn things around, as Russell showed last year when he won in Brazil after wrestling earlier in the campaign with a bouncing car, but the budget cap and limited wind tunnel time makes things harder.
\nRed Bull have now won 10 of the last 12 races but reliability, crashes and errors can never be ruled out \u2013 even if Verstappen is getting better and better and makes few mistakes.
\nThe Dutch driver retired in Bahrain last year while he was second and behind Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc, whose car broke down this time. \u201cIt has been a great start for us, for the whole team, so this is not something we were used to,\u201d said Verstappen.
\n\u201cWe are very happy at the moment but we always keep working. This is a great start but we also know that throughout the season you have to keep on developing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Team boss Horner says they\u2019re \u2018not taking anything for granted\u2019 after dominant display in Bahrain LONDON Red Bull were so dominant in Formula One\u2019s Bahrain season-opener that Mercedes rival George Russell suggested they could win every race this year. The Briton was not alone in pointing to such a scenario, even if such a sweep […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-318218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n