Red Bull boss Christian Horner says that Max Verstappen and the entire team feels recharged after a much needed winter break.
Verstappen will start the 2022 F1 season coming on the back of his maiden title-winning campaign. His colossal Championship fight with Lewis Hamilton last year, will be remembered as one of the greatest of all time.
After a tiring season, Verstappen and the rest of the Red Bull team enjoyed a few weeks of free-time around Christmas and New Year’s. However, with pre-season testing fast approaching, everyone is once again working around the clock.
Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner admitted that the whole outfit deserved a break. However, they are all back the factory in Milton-Keynes now, and are looking forward to having another successful year of F1 racing.
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“Max went off to do family stuff over Christmas and New Year for a break. Last week he has bought back into his training. So he’s all good,” Horner said to RN365.
“It was a tough season last year, tough for everybody. So it was good to get a bit of downtime over Christmas and the New Year to reflect on an amazing year and recharge the batteries a bit.”
“Then, in January, he’s been ramping it back up and training hard and looking forward to the season ahead.”
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Max Verstappen and Red Bull have moved on from their 2021 title success
Horner added that Verstappen will return to the Red Bull factory towards the end of January. He’s scheduled to fulfil several pre-season commitments before hitting the track in next month’s testing in Barcelona.
He went on to say that no one in Milton-Keynes is focused on what happened last year. They’re still proud of Verstappen for winning the Drivers’ title, but want to pick up where they left off, come the first race in 2022.
“He’ll be in the next week or so,” Horner continued. “Obviously, this time of year there’s a lot of work in the simulator, so it’s a lot of work in a virtual world.”
Felt really good to come home to a factory of World Champions 🟠
Thank you to everyone for the warm welcome today and more importantly for your hard work over the past year 🙏 pic.twitter.com/sex1cJGbJK
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) December 15, 2021
“Then there will be seat fittings and all that kind of stuff to do, with merchandise and this, that and the other. So from the last week of January things will start to get busy for him.”
“We’re totally focused on 2022 now. 2021 is done.” “We’ll celebrate the fact that we have number 1 on the car. But 2021 is history now. It’s all about 2022. So everyone is focused on the shakedown, the first test, the first race and 2022 after that.” the 48-year old concluded.
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