Christian Horner has admitted he made a "very expensive mistake" which cost Red Bull more silverware last year. It proved to be another title-winning season for the Milton Keynes-based squad. A dominant start to the campaign saw Max Verstappen build up enough of a cushion to win his fourth straight drivers' championship trophy comfortably in the end. But it was more of a struggle than it looked like it was going to be in the early weeks of the campaign. Red Bull started with once again the dominant car on the grid, but that changed after a major upgrade package didn't have the desired effect and they lost their way in terms of developing the RB20.

Verstappen struggled to tame his racing machine but managed to do enough to retain his drivers' crown. However, his team-mate Sergio Perez suffered a significant lull in form after signing a contract extension and never found it again. A Belgian Grand Prix in which the Mexican flattered to deceive, qualifying well before slipping from third on the grid down to finish eighth in the race, looked likely to be the final straw. But team principal Horner backed his man and Perez was given until the end of the year to get back to his best.

It never happened, however, and the 34-year-old was finally put out of his misery following the final race in Abu Dhabi. Liam Lawson has been promoted from the sister team Racing Bulls to partner Verstappen in 2024. Horner insists it is impossible to know whether a mid-season driver change would have yielded any better results and prevented both winners McLaren and runners-up Ferrari finishing above Red Bull in the constructors' championship. He does concede, however, that keeping Perez for too long looked to have been a "very expensive" mistake.

"It’s always easy to look with hindsight, and it's impossible to know what anybody else would have done in that car," he told PlanetF1. "I mean, Sergio started the season so well - second in Bahrain, second in Jeddah, and tremendously fast in Japan, which is an ultimate driver's circuit. "From Monte Carlo on, the wheels came off his campaign and, from that point onwards, we just haemorrhaged too many points. We won more races than any other team this year by a significant margin and had as many pole positions [as McLaren]. Third in the constructors' championship.

"When you look at the deficit from the second car, obviously it's just been too broad, especially from that point in the year. That was something that we tried to understand and we were working very hard with Sergio to try and assist some of the issues he had. But it was very expensive in terms of points lost in the constructors' championship.". Catch all the action from Formula One on Sky Sports and get exclusive access to races, qualifying and much more for every Grand Prix. From Max Verstappen to Lewis Hamilton, you won't miss a lap on Sky Sports.