Can Red Bull really win anywhere now it’s toppled a Mercedes F1 stronghold?

OPINION: Red Bull team boss Christian Horner reckoned Max Verstappen winning the French Grand Prix – an event where Mercedes had previously been dominant – would signal “we can beat them anywhere”. Here’s how that claim stacks up looking at the rest of the 2021 season

Alex Kalinauckas Jun 23, 2021, 9:46 AM

Upd: Jun 23, 2021, 3:17 PM

“This circuit, it’s been such a stronghold for Mercedes over the recent years. If we can beat them here, then really we can beat them anywhere.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was pretty bullish ahead of the 2021 French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard. And so he had every right to be. Max Verstappen had just inflicted a first qualifying defeat on the Black Arrows at a track where it had taken two poles, won both races and led 105 of the 106 racing laps since Paul Ricard returned to the Formula 1 calendar in 2018.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.