Formula One news

Horner hopes to score Red Bull's first victory in 2009

Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner is confident when the Briton is looking ahead of the upcoming Formula 1 season. Horner believes his team made the most of the many rule changes and believes the team is ready to take a step up the grid.

"Going into 2009, the team is now well placed to take advantage of the rule changes, not just the technical ones that we have known about for some time, but also those established through the efforts of FIA and FOTA last December," Horner said. "Red Bull Racing and Red Bull Technology carried no excess weight anyway in terms of manpower, so adjusting to the new rules has, for us, been relatively straight-forward and we are in good shape for the future.

"The changes caused few interruptions to our workflow and they will also assist the larger manufacturer teams in cutting costs, in terms of manpower. Over the past year, we had invested strategically, and therefore, with the rules as they now stand, we are in a good position to capitalise on them, as they present an opportunity for teams to compete on a more level playing field.

"2009 will also see us benefit from greater stability in terms of how we run the operation, with all our key players in the technical group having been with us for at least two years. We should not forget they designed a car that won a grand prix in 2008, in the hands of Sebastian Vettel and Scuderia Toro Rosso. There is no reason to believe we cannot do that again with these new rules. The regulation changes almost constitute a new formula for the sport and it will be interesting to see how the teams interpret them. Certainly in the early part of this season we expect to see a much bigger spread in terms of performance between the teams than we have over the past two years."

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