Q & A with Christian Horner

Christian Horner: Well first of all I have to say congratulations to the Brawn team. It has been a good fight this year. They had an amazing season and I think particularly for Jenson - I've known him since he was 10 years old - and if neither of our drivers could have won the championship this year, then I think Jenson over the course of the season has done a good job.

He did a lot of damage in the first seven races and he has mopped up the points since then. A championship is over a whole year, and history book will not look at how the form flowed over the year. So I think he is a worthy champion. I am very pleased for him. He has worked very hard for it and we will beat him next year.

Q. How much was the title fight battle decision this season by the double-diffuser issue at the start of the season?

CH: I think it had a significant impact at the beginning of the year, but you have to look at the championship as a whole. We lost out quite a lot at the beginning of the year, but it wasn't just down to the double diffuser. There was the incident with [Robert] Kubica, if you go right back to Melbourne, which was quite expensive for us. Then the 10 place penalty on the back of that, and the accident in Monaco - plus the engine failure in Valencia and the drive-through penalties.

If you look over the season, I am sure every driver and team has hard luck stories as well, but I think we had our fair share of bad luck this year, but we also have to reflect on a really strong season. We won our fifth grand prix in Brazil. We scored more than 130 points, we had our 14th podium. We have had three 1-2 finishes so far, and I think the progress that Red Bull has made it significant.

And we have learned a lot of lessons from this season, and we will only get stronger as a group. And I am sure Sebastian, for someone of such young age, is a world champion of the future.

Q. For various reasons McLaren, Renault and Ferrari had a year away from the front this season - allowing your team and Brawn GP to fill that void. Are you confident that the pair of you can keep your position in 2010?

CH: It is never easy, and I think the way that the form has ebbed and flowed has been remarkable. But everybody has the same regulations at the end of the day, and we didn't start our car any earlier than McLaren for this year. We were reasonably late starting RB5, but we have a great group of people and under Adrian Newey's technical leadership they have performed brilliantly, and they have got stronger and stronger.

I don't see any reason why we won't be able to build on the continuity and success that we have enjoyed this year, but for sure we have got some formidable opponents. We must remember that we are still an independent team and I think the team can be very proud of what it has achieved this year. As I said, we will only get stronger as a group going into next year.

Q. Will the mistakes Sebastian made this year, and learning from them, make him a more potent force in 2010?

CH: For sure. He is a young guy and the only thing he lacks in his armoury is experience. There is no short cut to that. Even so, he has had a fantastic campaign this year. I don't think anybody truly believed at the start of the year that he would be a championship contender, and despite all the odds he has never once given up.

He has driven his heart out at every single event on every single lap. Yes we have had five DNFs with him which have been expensive, but he will only come back stronger next year. As will the team. I think he can reflect on a season where he has done a great job and obviously the priority at the last race will be to secure the runners-up spot in the drivers' championship.

Q. How important for your title hopes next year is getting the right engine decision?

CH: It is vital. I honestly believe we have had the best chassis in Formula 1 this year. I think that you have to acknowledge what Renault have contributed. They are an important part of the package that has achieved what it has this year, and it is crucial that in finalising our partnership for next year that we do it with the right people.

We have enjoyed a great three years with them, on a working relationship, and we've had a very successful year this year. Over the next couple of weeks we need to consider everything very carefully before making a final decision.

Q. Did you ever feel that you truly got yourself into the world championship fight?

CH: I think the Brawns did so much damage in the first five races with Jenson's dominant streak that by the time we were really into the fight and up and running [it was too late]. We had a 1-2 in China and put a strong run of results together and then introduced the double diffuser and had a very strong run through Istanbul, Silverstone, Germany, where the Brawns were struggling.

We got to within 15 points of them I think going into the summer break, but neither driver really managed to put a succession of big scores together to do the damage in the drivers' championship to Jenson - who just kept turning up every weekend scoring twos and threes, and it is the person with the most points at the end of the year, not the most fastest laps. He did a very effective job after his dominant first half of the season of hovering points up in the second.

Q. Do you feel that the fact that Brawn's bad days were better than your bad days made a difference?

CH: I think that, as I said, they came out of the first two or three races with a 40-point lead. The damage was done at that point in the year. I think we came out - by Malaysia we had a couple of points with Mark, compared to their two wins. For example, Rubens went off, hit four or five cars in Melbourne but still finished second!

In a championship year you need things to fall right and, yes, on their bad days they did not have any engine failures, their mechanical reliability was good and Jenson had only one non-score, which is quite remarkable. I think we have had a faster chassis, I really do, since the summer. As I say, a championship is over a season not of two halves.

Q. Is getting the early damage in key to your chances in 2010 then?

CH: Well, I think obviously the double diffuser played its role in the early races, and that took a while for things to settle down. Then once that came on song on our car, which needed a huge redesign and a mammoth effort by the whole team to get that introduced in the timescale, was mind-blowing. The commitment and effort that has gone in is nothing short of sensational. There was a significant amount of damage done but that was not the whole story.