Christian Horner has vowed Red Bull will treat the remaining races of the Formula One season “like three FA Cup finals” as the team bid to end yet another double title-winning year on a high note.
The Red Bull team principal saw Sebastian Vettel become the sport’s youngest ever four-time champion with his 10th win of the season at the Indian Grand Prix on Sunday, a result which also secured the Milton Keynes outfit their fourth manufacturers’ crown in a row.
With regulation changes coming in from 2014 and both titles already in the bag, Red Bull could be forgiven for taking their foot off the gas over the closing races in Abu Dhabi, the United States and Brazil.
However, with momentum such a key ingredient in F1, Horner is refusing to allow his rivals to steal a march.
Asked if it really mattered to him whether a Red Bull took the chequered flag over the final three rounds, Horner said: “Absolutely. It’s like three FA Cup finals. We want to win every race.”
Certainly both of Red Bull’s drivers have plenty of reason to hope there are more wins to be had for the peerless Adrian Newey-designed RB9 between now and the end of the season.
Mark Webber, who retired from Sunday’s race with an alternator problem, has yet to win a race in 2013 and will leave the team at the end of the season for a new challenge with Porsche in sports cars, so his motivation to sign off with a victory will be high.
Vettel, meanwhile, has now won six races in a row in the second half of 2013 and on current form it is not inconceivable that he could equal Alberto Ascari’s long-standing record of nine consecutive race wins, set across two seasons in 1952 and 1953.
If anyone can threaten Ascari’s record it is Vettel, who on Sunday became only the fourth man in the sport’s history after Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher to become a four-time champion.
At the age of just 26, Vettel is six years younger than Schumacher was when he won a fourth title in 2001.