“We’ve Still Won a Race”: In the Revels of the 100th Win, Red Bull Boss Recalls the Precious Moments With Sebastian Vettel

“Toro Rosso Gets its Moment in the Sun. Sebastian Vettel is a Grand Prix Winner!” It all started on that rainy Sunday afternoon in Monza that can easily be deemed as Red Bull‘s origin story. While Red Bull may have got stunned to see Toro Rosso – its junior team taking the revels, little did Christian Horner & Co. know that the young German was going to do the same for them just months later. About 14 years after those inaugural champagne celebrations, Horner recalls the precious moments with Vettel that laid the foundation for RBR’s 100 wins in F1!

When 2009 came by, Christian Horner knew Sebastian Vettel was Red Bull’s future. The instant promotion after just one full season at Toro Rosso may have raised a few eyebrows. Regardless, Christian’s conviction got vindicated when Vettel got Red Bull’s debut win at the 2009 Chinese GP. It was similar rainy wet conditions to Monza 2008 and Sebastian excelled to dominate the race, bringing home a 1-2.

According to Motorsport-Total, Horner recalled Red Bull’s maiden win from Shanghai after Max Verstappen clinched the team’s 100th in Montreal. He said, “I remember taking the trophy with me that day, getting on the plane home and thinking we’d won at least once. If nothing else happens, then we’ve still won a race.“ [translated via Google]

Christian knew how difficult it was going to be for an energy drinks company to fight OEMs in F1. So it just could have been that Red Bull stayed in the midfield as an occasional winner. Although, Sebastian Vettel & Adrian Newey had other ideas. After 14 years & 99 wins since China 2009, they converted all those ideas into wins & championship trophies in the trophy cabinet at Milton Keynes!

Read More: Reality Starts to Sink in for the 4x World Champion Sebastian Vettel as He Approaches the Inevitable End: “It Will Get a Little Bit More Difficult…”

Red Bull has always been a team that gets a lot of hate & its young champions like Sebastian Vettel & Max Verstappen are at the forefront to take all that criticism. Like Verstappen has endured so much flake for dominating off late, even Sebastian Vettel was at the center of a lot of discontent during his prime days. Still, he showed the world his brilliance like Max has done in the past 3 years.

Is Max Verstappen facing the Same Fate as Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull?

Booing the dominant champion has become an unofficial norm in F1. While every champion in the past 2 decades has faced some sort of booing & hateful comments from fans, the Red Bull champs may easily top this list for reasons unknown. Sebastian Vettel & Max Verstappen’s dominance in F1 has uncanny resemblances. And so does the audience’s reaction to their impeccably rich vein of form.

Back in the day, whenever Vettel led a race from start to finish and dominated the field to finish half a minute ahead, people used to get so angry. Booing Seb on the podium was a regular instance from 2010 to 2013 during his championship streak. Cut to 2023, Max Verstappen is facing no different treatment.

The Miami GP this year had a whole flock of fans booing & cursing Verstappen before the start of the race. While Max was starting from P9 on the grid, he was in the shout for the win as a wildcard. That is exactly what he did by storming through the field to take the top spot on the podium.

Few would know if Verstappen endures the same fate as Vettel in terms of championships or not. Although, the stark similarities in the 2 Red Bull champs’ streaks so far are quite spectacular. It also speaks volumes about the way Red Bull grooms its young guns as championship material with similar ingredients. What do you think? Will Max be able to surpass what Vettel achieved?

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