The 2013 Formula 1 season has kicked off in Australia and the Infiniti Red Bull Racing appears to be picking up where they left off, in dominant form. We managed to grab some time with team principal Christian Horner before the season opener in Melborne and hurled a few incisive questions at him, chiefly asking him to name his top five current F1 drivers.
Horner’s response was fascinating as it contained some obvious choices, but not necessarily in the order you’d expect. At the top of his list was three-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel – no surprise there. In second place however was Ferrari supremo Fernando Alonso, who was followed in third by Mercedes new boy Lewis Hamilton. Mark Weber, who famously and somewhat ironically dubbed himself Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s “number two driver” was fourth on Horner’s list. McLaren’s Jenson Button was Horner’s fifth choice.
Logic would dictate, then, that Christian Horner’s ideal choice of driver line-up would be the pairing of Vettel and Alonso, but when we put this to him, he responded in the negative.
“Probably not,” he said. “You have to look at the dynamics within a team. The pairing that we have works very well, it’s entering its fifth year now and history dictates that when you put two truly formidable talents in one team you [as a team] can only lose. And one of them has got to lose, they can’t both be ultimate winners and that can be very disruptive in a team.”
“We’ve seen it very recently with Alonso and Hamilton [in 2006 and 2007], we’ve seen it over the years with Prost and Senna, Mansell and Pique – there are so many examples of it. You’ve got to have the right balance within the team and in the youth and speed that we have in Sebastian and the experience we have in Mark Webber it’s a very balanced team.”
Do you agree with Horner? Are Sebastian, Fernando and Lewis the best three drivers on the grid and in that particular order? Let us know your own list below.
Again, here’s Christian Horner’s top five list of the current best Formula 1 drivers.
1. Sebastian Vettel
2. Fernando Alonso
3. Lewis Hamilton
4. Mark Webber
5. Jenson Button
Image: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
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