Red Bull team principal Christian Horner is aware of just how easily this year’s Formula One world title could slip through the fingers of Sebastian Vettel.
The 26-year-old German opened up a 46-point cushion over his rivals on Sunday with victory in the Belgian Grand Prix, his largest margin of the year to date, with Fernando Alonso now his closest challenger.
It seems inconceivable Vettel will blow his lead from such a position of strength. But you only have to look back at what happened a year ago as Alonso had a 39-point lead over Vettel following the Italian Grand Prix, in which the latter retired, only to blow it.
So, when asked whether Vettel’s triumph at Spa-Francorchamps meant it was game over in the championship, Horner replied: “No, definitely not. There is still a long, long way to go.
“It’s obviously great to start the second half of the season with a victory, but as we’ve seen so far form moves around from race to race, circuit to circuit.
“Yes, it was a dominant win and his confidence is obviously high, he is driving extremely well. He put in a faultless performance at Spa. But things can change very quickly, just as we saw last year.”
Suggested to Horner it was unthinkable Vettel could let things slip, he replied: “Fernando managed to do it, so nothing is impossible.
“With 25 points for a victory, if you have a couple of non-finishes and if somebody puts a run together, then you can be on the back foot again.”
Vettel was comfortably ahead of Alonso and Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton in the race, the latter now 58 points off the lead.
Alonso, who again hauled his Ferrari on to the podium after he started from ninth on the grid, can only hope he does to Vettel what the German did to him last year.
“The championship is open, and the best example we have is from last year,” said Alonso.
“If you have a competitive car and you win four or five consecutive races, then you can recover very quickly.
“Whether we are in a position to do that, we will find out very soon. We just have to keep improving performance and try to repeat what happened last year... but the other way around.”