Christian Horner. Christian Horner. 
Red Bull chief Christian Horner predicted that the 2025 Formula One season will be "massively close" as he aims to fight back from losing the Constructors' Championship. (More Motorsport News)888 slots
While Max Verstappen successfully defended the drivers’ title to become world champion for a fourth consecutive year, Red Bull were beaten to the teams’ crown by McLaren.
Ferrari also finished ahead of Red Bull in the standings, with Verstappen scoring 437 of his team's 589 points as Sergio Perez endured a difficult season on track.
It was the first time that the world champion driver had not been part of one of the top two teams in the constructors' standings since Nelson Piquet with Brabham in 1983.
Pushed on just how big the challenge will be for the team to raise their game again in 2025, Horner voiced his expectation that the margins will be incredibly fine amongst the leading four outfits on the grid.
"I think if you look at points from the summer break until before this race, Charles [Leclerc] was very slightly ahead in terms of individual points scored, so you can see it’s going to be massively close next year,” Horner said.
"You’ve got at least four teams that are going to be in contention – in the last year of these regulations – of winning Grands Prix, so I think the biggest winner will be Formula 1 next year.
"I think that there’s going to be fine margins everywhere, and, of course, getting out the blocks as well is always imperative, but you can see it’s such a long season that consistency will be key."
Congratulations to @McLarenF1 for winning the Constructors’ Championship2024 Thank you so much for the hard work this year @redbullracing Now ready for some time off! pic.twitter.com/VcBTT00eQe
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) December 8, 2024And despite their relative struggles in 2024 compared to the dominance they enjoyed in 2023, Horner believes that Red Bull have a lot to be proud of reflecting on the year.
F1: Leclerc Tops Post-season Testing In Abu Dhabi, Sainz Makes Williams Debut "It’s certainly been a busy year, off track and on track, but I think what is the most important thing to reflect on this year is the way that the team has stuck together, has worked as a team," Horner added.
"And whilst Abu Dhabi didn’t go our way, one week ago we won a big race in Qatar and the nine victories that we achieved [across the season with] all those things that I just mentioned.
"If you weren’t comparing it to 2023 [when Red Bull won 21 out of 22 races]888 slots, it’s still a hell of a year, so to all the men and women back at Milton Keynes who have worked crazy hours, they can be very proud of what they’ve achieved this year."