Red Bull target team title

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner is determined to make amends for one of his marque’s rare failures of recent times.

It was at last year’s rain-soaked inaugural Korean Grand Prix that Horner thought his team’s title hopes had been washed away.

Despite Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber running first and second following a lengthy safety car period to start the race, they ultimately came away with nothing.

Initially Webber, leading the championship at the time, was caught out by the wet track and crashed out on lap 19, while Vettel suffered a blown engine 12 laps from home.

Red Bull have since been bulletproof, enduring only one failure to finish when Webber crashed out in Italy last month.

With Vettel retaining his drivers’ title in Japan on Sunday and Red Bull of the brink of clinching back-to-back constructors’ crowns, Horner feels this weekend’s race at the Yeongam circuit is the ideal venue for his team to further underline their strength and lay any demons from a year ago to rest.

“What happened last year shows anything can happen,” Horner said. “Seb was in the lead last year when the engine let go and we thought his championship had gone up in smoke, literally, that day.

“It seemed a long way home from Korea then, so it would be truly amazing if we could go back there and make up for that result this year.”

For Horner, despite the celebrations that followed Vettel’s record-breaking triumph – nothing more than a karaoke session – there remains the small matter of completing the double double.

Red Bull are currently 130 points clear of nearest rivals McLaren and need to be 129 ahead after Sunday’s race to clinch back-to-back constructors’ crowns.

“The two titles carry equal status, although obviously the drivers’ is the one the public remember,” Horner added.

“Within the team, if you ask the guys on the shop floor the constructors’ is the one where their pride is because that is where they are measured against their peers up and down the pitlane.

“And their bonus is paid on the constructors’, so that is the one that carries the real weight.

“From a prestige point of view it is right up there, so they both have the same weight, the same value to us, but right now only half the mission is accomplished.

“The drivers’ world championship is the first part, the second part is to retain the constructors’, and although we’ve a healthy lead, we take nothing for granted.”

As far as chief technical officer Adrian Newey is concerned, no-one within the team can “let their hair down just yet”.

Newey has been the brains behind Red Bull’s rise, and for him the constructors’ is the measure of a team’s standing.

“We don’t pay overtime, but the overtime that has gone on back at the factory is amazing,” he said. “Everybody is so dedicated to achieve what we have and there is a really good spirit in the factory.

“The factory itself is nothing special, just a bunch of industrial units in Milton Keynes. The base is a building, but the atmosphere inside is fantastic. It is a pleasure to work there.

“Now, if we can do the double, it would be truly amazing.”

Newey acknowledges, though, the circumstances this season are very different to last year given the woes that unfolded in Korea before Vettel’s last-gasp triumph in Abu Dhabi.

“This is not quite the same feeling as last year in Abu Dhabi because last year we managed to do it the other way round,” he added.

“We won the constructors’ in Brazil and then at the last race in Abu Dhabi we managed to pinch the drivers’ against expectation.

“This year it’s fantastic to have won the drivers’ in Japan, but we will keep pushing and get the constructors’ if we possibly can.”