MONACO — Christian Horner downplayed the suggestion of an unbeaten Formula One season after Max Verstappen claimed Red Bull’s sixth straight win at the Monaco Grand Prix.
F1 has never seen a team complete a perfect season before — the closest any has come was McLaren in 1988, winning 15 of the 16 races.
Red Bull would need to win 22 to do so this year but its competitive advantage has been obvious from the beginning of the season.
“You are trying to get me to do an Arsene Wenger here aren’t you? I’m not going to,” Christian Horner said after the Monaco victory, referring to the manager of Arsenal’s unbeaten ‘Invincibles’ team from the 2002/03 Premier League season.
Verstappen’s win could easily have gone to Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin had they made a different tyre strategy call when the rain intensified late in the race.
“There’s so much jeopardy you saw today with the weather and there’s so many factors that can go wrong and the competition is so strong anything can happen,” Horner added.
“So we’re just taking one race at a time.”
The Monaco win saw Verstappen open up a 39-point lead over teammate Sergio Perez, who failed to score a point after crashing out of qualifying.
Red Bull leads Aston Martin in the constructors’ championship by 129 points.
When asked if Red Bull can expect a one-sided championship for the rest of the season, Horner said: “I don’t think so.
“It’s so early to predict that. We got 14 races to go. There’s a lot that can go wrong.
“We’re six races into this championship. Max has driven brilliantly and Checo [Perez] had a weekend to forget here but has been in great form but we’re going to see what the output is from the upgrades in Barcelona next weekend.
“It’s impossible to judge here and you have to take your hat off to Fernando this weekend.”
Alonso’s second-place finish in Monaco was his best since finishing in the same position at the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Despite not winning a race this year, Alonso is just 12 points behind Perez in the championship.